InLand/YA Booktalks

Book Talk: Stranger with My Face by Lois Duncan

By Adrienne Reifel

Stranger with My Face is a young adult novel written by Lois Duncan in 1981.  The main character is Laurie Stratton, a high school student who lives on Brighton Island, a small island in New England with her family.  Her father is a science fiction writer and her mother is a painter.  Her parents love her, but seem absentminded at times.  She has two siblings, an eleven-year old brother named Neal and an eight year old sister named Megan. 

At the beginning of the novel, Laurie has an attractive, well-liked boyfriend named Gordon.  She is reserved, but dating Gordon makes her popular by association.  However, her perfect life gradually falls apart when Gordon claims he saw her on the beach one night when she was sick in bed.  Her other family and friends also tell Laurie that they see her places other than where she actually is. 

Laurie gradually discovers that she was adopted when she was a baby and that she had a twin.  Laurie and her twin, Lia, are half Native American and were separated at birth.  She is upset with her parents for hiding these facts from her.  Lia using astral projection to appear on Brighton Island, which explains why Laurie’s friends and family constantly claim that she is somewhere she isn’t.  Lia turns out to be evil, injuring Laurie’s best friend, Helen, and her new boyfriend, Jeff. 

Laurie eventually discovers that she can use astral projection as well, so she visits Lia in New Mexico and discovers that she is in a mental hospital for killing her adoptive sister, Kathy.  While Laurie is using astral projection, Lia steals Laurie’s body and pretends to be her.  The novel culminates in Laurie getting her body back and realizing that even though she was adopted, her family has been nothing but wonderful to her. 

Personally, I really enjoyed this book.  Even though it was published three decades ago, I thought that it was really modern and fresh.  It was really suspenseful and intriguing; I think it would hold the interest of young adult readers quite well.  Laurie is a relevant protagonist with whom readers could definitely relate.  The novel also explores complex issues of family and friendship, which could spark interesting conversation in a classroom.  I would definitely recommend this book both for independent reading and classroom teaching.   However, the reading level was fairly low, so I would recommend it for less advanced readers.  

 

Booktalk: Ghost Boy by Iain Lawrence

By Nathan Giermann

Looking down the Should Be / Could Be list, there weren't many options as far as books from 2000 and up were concerned.  However, Ghost Boy jumped out nearly immediately due largely to its name.  I pulled up a quick summary online.  The 1940s?  Albinos?  The circus?  This sounded interesting enough that I knew I'd be kicking myself later if I didn't at least check it out.

 Ghost Boy opens with Harold Kline, or Harold the Ghost as he's usually known, due to the fact that he has albinism.  To say that his hometown of Liberty was less than accepting of him would be a gross understatement.  Following the death of his father and his brother disappearing in World War II,  Harold is bullied and tormented more than ever before and wants nothing so much as to become “normal.”  Even his only remaining family is no comfort to him; his mother – once kind and loving, but now scolding and callous after the deaths – has remarried a local banker that frequently points out that Harold is just “different” than other boys.

While fishing one day, Harold encounters Thunder Wakes Him, who tells him of the circus just recently come to town.  At the colored tents of the Hunter & Green's Circus, Harold meets fellow “freaks” the diminutive Princess Minikin – or Tina, as she prefers – and Samuel, the Missing Link.  Forbidden to attend the circus by his stepfather and tired of his life in Liberty, Harold – with only his helmet, glasses, and his brother's baseball, glove, and bat – latches onto the traveling circus.

He meets a myriad crew with Hunter & Green's, from the beautiful horsewoman, Flip; the mysterious Roma, Magda; to the hostile rigger, Roman.  Traversing the country – and slowly nearing his goal of Oregon, to live as a mountain man – Harold begins to train the resident elephants to play baseball, a feat never before seen and the circus' last hope to evade going under.  As the elephants learn to bat, pitch, and field, Harold begins to realize his dream of acceptance, but at the sake of having to choose between Flip and being “normal” or the “freaks” who welcomed him before anyone else.  To make matters worse, Magda's continual prophecies keep coming true, driving Harold towards an encounter with the legendary Cannibal King – the enigmatic albino guide of the circus.

 Ghost Boy, at its core, is a coming-of-age story.  While it may be set in the '40s, the setting seems to take the backseat to the characters, which allows the story to remain relevant today, and the sheer number of characters nearly ensures that one of the characters can be related to.  Harold himself embodies all the joys, torments, and confusions that categorize adolescence, providing the reader with a chance to explore the various concepts of friendship, love, and truth that are pervasive throughout safely.

While Ghost Boy is an entertaining read, the reading level is fairly low – probably sixth or seventh grade – and the subjects are not extremely in-depth.  Additionally, until the very end, the plot was at no point difficult to predict.  However, despite these flaws, the book itself is charming and enjoyable to the last page and could easily be adapted into a unit as an introductory text in a high school freshman or sophomore classroom.  If a quick, light-hearted is what's needed, Ghost Boy is an absolutely fantastic choice.

 

Book Talk: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

By Alexandria Suhadolnik

            The book Wintergirls, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a graphic, brutally honest, fictional story about a teenage girl who struggles with an eating disorder that threatens her life. Her obsession with food and being skinny affects not only herself but also the lives of the people around her, including her family. Anderson’s novel is vivid and graphic, but exquisitely grabs the reader and pulls them into a depressing yet heartfelt story of a teen caught in a world where defined by physical appearences.

            The book begins by introducing the main character Lia. She is an 18 year old high school girl who lives with her father, stepmother, and stepsister Emma. Lia refuses to visit her mother who lives in the same town but in a separate neighborhood across town. Lia’s mother, a cardiologist, and her father, a professor, have successful careers that consume much of their time. Therefore, Lia spends much of her time with her stepmother and stepsister.

`            In the first chapter of the book, Lia is informed by her stepmother of the death of Cassie. Cassie and Lia had a 9 year long friendship that ended recently. Cassie was found dead in a motel room with no signs of foul play. Lia wonder’s what happened to Cassie, and if it had anything to do with the reason she and Cassie had to end their friendship months before.

            Lia begins to reminisce about an incident that happened months ago when she and Cassie were in a car wreck. Lia was driving and passed out at the wheel. Lia was taken to the hospital needing medical attention, but Cassie was unharmed. After undergoing medical attention, Lia’s blood tests revealed signs poor health. The tests showed signs of malnutrition pointing toward an eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. Lia, being dramatically underweight, was sent to a rehab hospital to learn healthy eating habits and bring her body back to health. Cassie, having her own eating disorder, bulimia, informs Lia after the accident that the two could not be friends anymore. Cassie blamed Lia for negatively influencing her toward an unhealthy lifestyle promoting skinniness.

            Throughout the book, Lia is forced to undergo routine health checkups by the school nurse and her stepmother that includes recording her weight and forcing her to eat the right portions of healthy foods. While Lia was undergoing a checkup by the school nurse, she reads a detailed article in the local newspaper about the death of Cassie. Lia, began to feel guilty, remembering that Cassie had called her numerous times the night before she was found dead in the motel. That night, Lia chose not to answer the phone. She wished she knew the reason Cassie called and if she could have prevented her death by answering the phone.

            Lia explained throughout the novel the different times she has had to stay at New Seasons, the rehab hospital. She described the steps she was forced to go through to work on overcoming her eating disorder and poor body image. Both times she went, she entered with what she believed was a great body weight, but was considered dangerous according to her family and doctors. She thinks the time spent there was unhelpful and that it only made her fat and feel even more negatively about herself. Both times after leaving rehab, she would work to get back to the weight she was before she was admitted. Lia goes great distances to deceive the people monitoring her health to think that she is making progress. She manually adjusts the scale to make her weight appear to be heavier, she sews quarters into her robe to add pounds to her weight, and she makes sure she’s drenched from a shower before she steps onto the scale. Lia is constantly concerned about any fat she can see on her body. She starves herself, counts her calories, and exercises multiple times a day to create a calorie deficit. Throughout the book, Lia sets weight goals for herself ranging from 85 to 75 that get lower as she loses the weight.

            Anorexia isn’t the only self-infliction Lia commits. Her father informs her that eating disorders are normal and can be overcome, but cutting her skin is not an option. Lia begins cutting herself but hides the cuts with clothes. Lia also takes sleeping pills, laxatives, and other pills to help her sleep and maintain her desired weight.

            A couple days after Cassie’s death, Lia receives a phone call from a mysterious man, Elija. He tells her that Cassie asked him to deliver her a message before she died. Lia visits Elija, but uses the alias Emma to hide her identity. She becomes friends with Elija and convinces him to go with her to Cassie’s funeral. At the funeral, Lia’s identity is revealed to Elija when her mom approaches her. Elija informs Lia that he only saw how unhealthy Cassie was at the motel and that she was stumbling around the parking lot. He claims he didn’t know how she died but had visited her for the couple days she was staying at the motel.

            After the funeral, Lia goes home with mother whom she has chosen in the past to avoid. Lia’s mother notices Lia’s malnutrition and pressures her to eat and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Lia becomes overwhelmed with her Mom and the stress of lying to everyone around her. Lia’s mother is the only character in the book that looks past the test results to determine Lia’s state of health.

            The reason for Cassie’s death is revealed to the reader when Lia tells of a promise the two girls made in the 8^th grade. The two girls, both striving to be skinny, made promises to each other to be the skinniest girls in the school. Lia’s mother informs her about what exactly killed Cassie. Cassie’s bulimia drove her into a highly dangerous physical state that with the mixture of pills and vodka, caused her death in the motel room. Lia begins to feel guilty and is driven into a major state of depression.

            Lia visits Elija a final time. She tells him of her eating disorder and problems with cutting. Lia passes out in Elija’s motel room due to malnutrition, scaring him into leaving town. Elija leaves Lia a note informing her of what Cassie asked him to tell her. Cassie told Elija to inform Lia that she had won. Cassie was referring to the bet they made to be the skinniest girls in 8^th grade. Lia becomes overwhelmed with sadness and realizes her body is shutting down. She calls her mother and tells her to come get her at the motel and that she might want to call an ambulance.

            Lia, moments away from death, is revived by the EMT. After leaving the hospital, she is sent to rehab a last time. The consequences of her lifestyle hit her dramatically when she learns that she isn’t allowed to be around her stepsister because her stepmother doesn’t want to expose her daughter to Lia’s problems. Lia, stunned with the ramifications of her decisions, decides that she finally does want to get better. She realized how close she had been to dying and decided she wanted a different outcome in life than that of her deceased friend Cassie. Lia’s epiphany changed her way of life. She had finally decided that she wanted to lead a healthy life.

            This novel was extremely depressing but could be considered a wakeup call to readers. The novel is appropriate enough to be on the shelf in a classroom, but may not be fitting to teach a lesson on. It would be a great tool in helping a student dealing with an eating disorder considering it is easy to read and explains Lia’s story in explicit detail. I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone looking for a leisure read, but would recommend it to a reader needing it for health purposes.

 

Book Talk: Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl

By Eric Lee

                  For my second book talk, I read Enchantress from the Stars, a young adult science fiction novel written by Sylvia Engdahl. The novel has won many young adult literary awards such as the Newberry Honor.

                  The novel is split into three perspectives. The first is that of a young alien girl named Elana, who is a citizen of a technologically advanced, telepathic race known as the Federation. The Federation is involved in an effort to monitor worlds with intelligent life that are still maturing into technically advanced and ethically responsible civilizations, often avoiding intervention and contact with these races at all costs. In the novel, Elana’s father and a few of her family friends embark on a special mission to an Earth-like planet in which intervention has been deemed necessary; another technologically advanced (though less advanced than the Federation) race known as the Imperials has begun to colonize the planet in order to utilize its abundant resources. Though Elana has been trained like her father to be an agent on such missions, she is too young and therefore forbidden to go. Desperate to gain real experience and see what it’s like on the field, Elana stows away on her father’s ship and goes to the planet anyway.

                  The second perspective is that of Georyn, a woodcutter who lives in a feudal society on the planet. ­Georyn’s society is one that still believes in monsters, spirits, wizards, etc., and regards the invading Imperials and their technology as demons and monsters, particularly their gigantic land-clearing machine, which Georyn’s society believes to be a horrifying dragon. Georyn’s king sends many adventurers to destroy the “monster,” but they are no match for the technologically superior Imperials, who possess the ability to disintegrate a person with a single blast from their firearms. Georyn and his brothers decide they will go out to take on the evil “demons” and their creatures.

                  The third perspective comes from Jarel, a young medical officer in the invading Imperial force. Jarel finds the ethical treatment of the native populace as animals wrong, but struggles with his desire to be accepted and avoid punishment from his superior officers. He grapples with these issues throughout the novel.

                  The novel then deals with these three main characters as Elana, as instructed by her team, takes the guise of an enchantress to give Georyn knowledge he can use to drive back the Imperials through fear. The plan involves teaching Georyn some very basic telepathic commands and mastery of basic Federation technology, as the Imperials would not wish to risk open war with a species more advanced than they originally thought.

                  Enchantress from the Stars is excellent for young adult and adult readers alike. It presents complicated issues of colonialism in an engaging, relatively simplistic way that is easy to grasp for young readers. It can teach young readers the dangers of trivializing, belittling and abusing less technologically advanced civilizations and has parallels to many historical instances of this. This novel opens the door to more complex moral questions that students will have to grapple with in high school reading material.

 

 

Book Talk: The Tent by Gary Paulsen

By Kyle Smith

                   The book I chose to read was The Tent by Gary Paulsen; I am quite familiar with Gary Paulsen’s writing—I read Hatchet (among other Young Adult Literature novels by Paulsen) when I was in middle school.  Hatchet is one of my favorite books, even today.  In my humble opinion, Paulsen is one of the finest Young Adult Literature authors, his stories are easy to read and build a true connection between his readers and his characters, which is even more remarkable considering he wrote numerous books before I was even born.  My familiarity and fondness for Paulsen’s stories is what made me choose The Tent without any knowledge of the story.

                  The Tent is a very vivid and likeable tale. It chronicles a father and son’s rise from poverty—by hustling the word of God and eternal salvation.  Steven is 14 when his dad Corey has the idea that leads to the pair departing the west Texas trailer park where they had been living and spreading ‘the word of God.’  Even from early on Steven knows this is wrong: “Steven had never heard his father mention God—not counting the time he’d slammed his thumb with a framing hammer.  They had never been to church, never studied the Bible, never spoken anything even remotely religious.”  Steven’s dad explains that one of his friends got rich preaching and that he was sick of working two minimum wage jobs.

                  They start out by stealing a bible from a motel and his dad trades some labor for a huge army tent.  Steven is horrified by the prospect of his dad, who was once a proud man with a great job in a factory that made doors before the company outsourced every one of its factories, preaching to people.  However, when he confronts his dad he is swayed by his dad’s conviction, promises of monetary gain, and assertion that they can and will be helping people.

                  Despite his dad’s lack of concern over the prospect of faking spiritual enlightenment, Steven is so thoroughly embarrassed at their first stop (Castle, Texas) that he prays nobody shows up.  However, two blue collar sunburned families do show up.  The sermon is bad and his father has to scream it due to the age of a few of his flock.  However, right as Steven is apologizing to his dad for their failure, his dad shows him that they made $28—an incredible sum in their mind. 

                  Despite how terrible and conflicted Steven feels after the first sermon, he eventually comes to love it.  Corey enjoys one thing more than they money, and it’s the power trip.  However, once he realizes that he can ‘heal’ people in front of his congregation he really gets zealous for his newfound power and respect.  Meanwhile, Steven gets really leery of his dad and his fake cripples keep tossing around: profit.

                  Then, when performing a fake healing of his accomplices, Corey actually does heal an old women who was feeble and frail.  Despite the fact that it was clearly an instance of mind over matter, it recommits Steven to the notion that they are actually helping people—not stealing from them.  Only to be crushed when he, along with his dad, finds out this woman was also a fake.  As they perfect their act, the money starts to really pile up and they make as much as $700 a night.

                  The influx of money leads Corey to abandon his shopping at the good will and turn to buying fancy suits and getting his hair done.  Steven kind of resents this change in his father who, after losing sight of right and wrong, considers himself saintly in his slate grey Cadillac.  Despite his reservations about his father’s behavior, Steven really loves the role he plays in his dad’s act and can’t get enough of it.  Then it all comes crashing down when Steven notices the true love the people who attend have for God, and each other and his guilt comes roaring back.  Simultaneously, his dad also starts to feel guilty and actually begins reading the Bible from the first motel.  One night, Corey admits he is a fraud and actually talks about Jesus and takes the collection money from that night and gives it to a charity.

                  There are numerous themes within The Tent that make this an excellent choice in the context of a classroom.  The most obvious themes are poverty, right versus wrong, morality and even outsourcing.  The strongest theme is right versus wrong.  This theme comes out clearly in the text because despite the fact that Steven and Corey know they are doing wrong, they have almost no choice if they are to survive.  Steven and his father both only own things that came from the Goodwill, and his dad works two jobs just to feed them and rent the 10 year old trailer where they ‘live’.  However, there is a great parallel in that most of the people who become patrons of Corey’s lies are blue collar or poor themselves.  The reader’s sympathy for Steven and Corey turns to disgust when Corey starts to pay people to allow him to perform fake healings, and it adds the theme of greed into the book around the midway point.  Corey and Steven eventually do make amends and find God though, thus restoring themselves in the eyes of the reader.

This book would be most appropriate in a sixth or seventh grade classroom for a few different reasons.  Firstly, the reading level of this book is really easy, and even dependent readers would have few and far-in-between struggles with the vocabulary or syntax.  Secondly, the book is really short, just 99 pages in its eBook form.  Lastly, while the themes in The Tent are worth discussing and studying, they are less than most books high schoolers read.  All in all, I really enjoyed The Tent and found the redemption story to be more than satisfying.  The twists within the story where very well written and would certainly keep a class's attention.  

 

Book Talk: I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

By Jennifer Kearby

            Luckily I am a mentor for middle school aged girls at Lincoln Middle School, and I asked them what book they are obsessing over lately.  With a series of squeals and hand waving paired with a half jumping body, they told me a series called the Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter.  I decided to start from book one which is called I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. 

            The novel’s main character and narrator is Cammie Morgan and she explains to the reader that it may appear she goes to a stuck up, ritzy, private school called the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women, but that is just a cover.  In fact, Cammie’s school is a school for spies!  I must admit, I was extremely pumped about this because I love when a book takes something out of the ordinary that is adventurous. 

            Cammie proceeds to tell us that her mother is not only one of the best spies the CIA has had, but she is also the headmistress of the school.  We soon find out that Cammie’s dad was also a CIA operative but he went missing on a mission and was never found.  It has been Cammie’s mission to carry on her dad’s legacy as one of the best “pavement artists”. 

            However, the book would not be complete without her trusty sidekicks.  Liz is one of the smartest girls at the academy and Bex is one of the strongest and bravest girls.  Together, the three girls are the CIA dream team.  But controversy starts when a senator’s daughter arrives at school (her parents have no knowledge that the school is for spies) and shakes Cammie’s world up.  Her name is Macy and she is everything that Cammie and her friend’s despise.  She is spoiled, bossy and is an all around know it all.             

            But soon enough, the tables turn when Cammie and her schoolmates are taken on a practice mission by their Covert Operations teacher, Mr. Solomon.  It is here that she meets a local boy named Josh whom she falls head over heels for.  Cammie and her friends no nothing about boys but discover that Macy does and ask for her help.  From here, the girls find a fast friendship and find out that they have more in common than they think.  The four spies in training go on secret missions to learn all about Josh and his life. 

            Because of the secrecy of the school and the cover that they must use as snotty rich girls, the town that the academy is outside of despises the girls.  It is up to Cammie and her friends to never let Josh know the truth about her.  But during a mission for her Covert Operations class, Josh follows Cammie and discovers the truth about the school and the girl he likes.  Although the academy possesses the gadgets to erase Josh’s memory, Cammie is still in major trouble with the school, the CIA, and most importantly her mother whom she lied to when she would sneak off campus to see Josh.  So what is Cammie to do now?  Leave the Gallagher Academy and try to live a normal life with her grandparents on a farm in Montana?  I must read the next installment called, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy. 

            I would recommend this to any young female reader who wants a book packed with adventure, young love and most importantly friendship.  It was a great read and I must admit that I have already ordered the whole series on Amazon.  Oops! 

 

 

Book Talk: Sex Education by Jenny Davis

By Kendra Waters

While on my path to choosing a book off the list, I looked for interesting titles and looked them up on amazon. I do not remember how many books I looked at or what they were about, but Jenny Davis’ Sex Education stood out to me and sounded interesting, or at least like something I would enjoy reading. The book did not go exactly as I thought it would; however, it was a quick and good read.

The prologue sets the book up interestingly enough. Livvie is talking about how her doctor wants her to tell her story and so she is. It’s a short prologue that does not give away a lot of information. The first chapter starts out with Livvie entering the 9^th grade at a new school. Her family moves around a lot because of her dad’s job and she can never get conformable or make lasting friendships. When she first walks in to her biology class (which is the only class that is ever really mentioned in the story), she sees David for the first time and decides to sit by him when he nods to the chair next to him. Their teacher, Mrs. Fulton, seems nutty and barely talks the whole class. She gives them one assignment for the night: think about what sex is. David asks Livvie where her next class is and it is on the way to his so he walks her there. It is apparent from the start that Livvie is very much intrigued by David.

When they come to class the next Mrs. Fulton explains her plan for the first term. She is going to teach them about Sex Ed. More so than the short section of the book that they usually get, she wants to teach them to care about people and wants them to wait to have sex, but to know about it and how to be prepared for it.

David and Livvie walk home with each other from school every day because they live in the same neighborhood. They see a couple moving into an old house down the street. The wife faints when she gets out of the car and goes to the doctor so people from the neighborhood unload their U-Haul truck for them. When the husband (Mr. Parker) gets back he acts very negative towards David and Livvie so they leave almost immediately. They become intrigued by the Parkers after Mr. Parker puts up no trespassing signs and seems to ignore almost everyone. They both choose them as their caring project for their biology class, but they end up focusing much of their energy on Mrs. Parker, who is pregnant but seems very sick and almost crazed at times (especially about the snakes that seem to be moving underneath the house with the blasting of the side of the mountain for the highway). She almost loses the baby and David’s “mom”, Marie, helps them (she is a midwife) by giving them ideas to tell Mrs. Parker. They go over almost every day and they learn so much about caring and about themselves. David opens up to Livvie and tells her things he has never told anyone – like that Marie is not his real mom and that he has never known his parents. His mom was a teenager who left him with her.

Everyday that they go to the Parker’s they leave before Mr. Parker comes home. When he does get home while they are leaving he often ignores them or tells them not to come over. Several events happen including Mr. Parker sitting with another woman on his lap and the Parker’s disappearing for a while during Christmas, and then Maggie not allowing the kids to come over anymore.

While all of this is going on, Livvie and David grow even closer. They become a couple, they hold hands, kiss, and spend all of their free time together. At one point they even talk about sex and the steps they need to go through before they can have it. But right after that conversation they see the Parker’s leaving to go to the hospital, it is time for the baby. Mr. Parker seems different than normal, he actually talks to them in a normal tone of voice. However, when they return from the hospital things do not go smoothly. They walk into the house and hear Mrs. Parker moaning. She is on the bed and has had several different kinds of accidents and is very disoriented. While David tends to the baby, Livvie helps clean Mrs. Parker and change her clothes. She realizes that Mr. Parker has been beating her and Mrs. Parker tries to explain that it is okay and that a man has his rights and needs. They decide to get her out of there right away. They are going to take her to Marie’s but they see Mr. Parker coming home so David is decides to go try and distract him while Livvie takes her and the baby to her house because it is closer. Mrs. Parker tells David and then Livvie that it is a bad idea but they do not understand just how bad of an idea it is.

Livvie hears their voices rising and runs over to where they are but it is too late. Mr. Parker had been poking David in the chest, backing him up, and he fell and slid down the icy steps. His neck snapped and he died. Livvie’s first love died. Mr. Parker goes to jail but gets out after four months. During this time Livvie was basically unconscious. She couldn’t talk. It seems like she didn’t want to live. What really helped her out was when Mrs. Fulton came to visit about a year after it happened. She talks to Livvie and tells her that she thinks it’s her fault that David died and how guilty she is. She starts crying. This is when Livvie realizes something. David would not want her to feel that way so she tells Mrs. Fulton that it’s not any of their faults. They wanted to care for the Parkers; they did not have to. She realizes that David is still in her. He gave her a piece of him, the want to heal and to care (which came from Mrs. Fulton too). I think Mrs. Fulton’s visit will make her want to get better, especially since before she had said she did not want to get better because she would be leaving David.

I think that this was a really great book. It had a horrible ending, but I think it teaches a lot. It teaches how to care for people, it teaches about sex ed., and it teaches about relationships. I think it would be a great book for students because almost all of them should be able to relate to it in some way. But everyone should be able to gain something from it. In my eyes, it has a little bit of something for everyone. I would definitely try to incorporate this book into my classroom somehow and I am very glad that I chose it to do a book talk on.