Dear Readers,
Welcome to my young adult materials blog. It was done as a project for Professor Beth Wrenn-Estes' LIBR 265 Section 10 Young Adult Materials class for the San Jose State Master's of Library and Information Science. It is a collection of fifty different materials intended to be used by young adults between the ages of fifteen and eighteen.
On the side bar, there is a page dedicated to the Table of Contents. This page has the complete listing of the initial fifty materials. Additionally, there is a page dedicated to the First Defense File. The First Defense File is the process I would follow if there is a challenge to any of the materials.
Please enjoy as you read!
Thank you!
John Harbaugh
Tuesday, May 13, 2014
A Clockwork Orange
Title: A Clockwork Orange
Author: Anthony Burgess
ISBN: 9780393312836
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Copyright: 1995 (1963)
Genre: Science Fiction
Age
Range: 17+
Reader’s Annotation: Alex, a fifteen year old juvenile
delinquent, narrates his rampage of ultra-violence and reformation.
Plot Summary: Alex is a fifteen year old juvenile delinquent
that lives in the not so distant dystopian England. He pals around with his
gang of friends, or droogs, Dim, Georgie, and Pete. Alex is an intelligent,
witty sociopath with a taste for violence and Beethoven. They all meet at the
Korova Milk Bar to drink what’s called milk-plus, a concoction of milk and a
choice of drugs. They drink it with a drug called “knives” because it keeps
their senses sharp. That evening, the gang beat up a scholar, assault a
storekeeper and his wife, rob the store, stomp a panhandler, and battle against
a rival gang. They continue to countryside where they break into an isolated
house and beat up the husband and rape the wife. Back at the bar, there is
in-fighting amongst the gang. Alex goes home to enjoy some classical music.
Alex
ditches school and gets a visit from a truant officer/juvenile probation
officer. Alex meets two ten year olds in a record store, takes them to his
parent’s flat, gives them alcohol, injects himself with a drug, and date rapes
them in their incapacitated state. Later that evening, he meets up with his
gang. Georgie challenges Alex’s leadership by demanding a “man sized” job. He
stops the mutiny by cutting Dim’s hand and fighting Georgie. They break into a
wealthy, elderly woman’s house which was Georgie’s idea. In the violence, the
woman dies. Dim knocks Alex out of revenge and so that Alex can take the blame
for the death. Alex is sentenced to prison for murder. He gets a job playing
the religious music at chapel. The chaplain mistakes Alex’s interest in the
Bible for faith, but Alex is only looking for the violent passages.
Alex is
framed for a murder inside the prison. He volunteers for an experimental behavior-modification
treatment called the Ludovico Technique to get out of prison sooner. It is a
version of aversion therapy. When injected with the serum, Alex gets sick while
watching graphically violent films. It conditions him to suffer crippling
nausea at the thought of violence. They even used Beethoven’s Ninth and other
classical music as a soundtrack that makes him sick listening to it. The
technique is proved to work in front of officials when Alex is presented with a
bully and a scantily-clad young woman and is made sick. He is released into
society.
Alex’s
parents rent out his room. Alex roams the streets. He researches painless ways
to commit suicide. He encounters the scholar he beat up and in return is beat
up by the scholar and his friends. The police arrive to help him but it turns
out to be Dim and a rival gang member that drag him outside of town and beat
him. Alex is back at the cottage of the break in and rape. The resident, F.
Alexander, takes Alex in, not recognizing him because of the ski cap he wore
during the home invasion. F. Alexander asks Alex about the conditioning he
endured. As a critic of governmental programs, F. Alexander plans to release
Alex’s story as an example of the brutality of the justice department against
prisoners. Alex accidentally reveals that he was the leader on the night of
horror that killed F. Alexander’s wife. F. Alexander’s friends sequester Alex
to a dank apartment near his parent’s. They pretend to leave but torture him in
the middle of the night with classical music driving him to commit suicide by
jumping out a window.
Alex wakes
up in a hospital where government officials use him to counter the bad
publicity from the prison research. He is offered a job and a reversal of the Ludovico
conditioning if he agrees to let the politicos use him for their own gains. He
dreams of violence. Soon after, he half-heartedly prepares for another night of
ultra violence with a new set of droogs when he runs into Pete. Pete is
reformed and married. He starts feeling less pleasure with the violence and
longs to start a family and be more responsible with his life.
Critical Evaluation: One might think that A Clockwork Orange
is a useless piece of literature for teens to read. It is full of violence,
rape, and irresponsibility. It also teaches the lesson of consequences. Alex
does an array of horrible things. He is imprisoned for it. For every atrocity
that he did in his young teen years, he paid for it doubly later in life.
Through the experience of paying his debts, he slowly comes to the conclusion
that what he did was wrong. He also sees that he has a free ticket to grow up
and be a constructive citizen instead of always being destructive. We hope that
our young people do not follow this path. The last chapter of this book proves
that even those on that path can make the change in their life to be something
different if they choose to be different.
Author Information: Anthony Burgess was an English novelist,
poet, playwright and composer born on February 25, 1917, in Manchester, England.
In total, he wrote 33 novels, 25 non-fiction pieces, three symphonies, over 150
other musical works and other works. Well known novels included The Wanting
Seed, Inside Mr. Enderby, Earthly Powers and A Clockwork Orange, the latter of
which was adapted into a popular 1971 Stanley Kubrik film. Burgess died on
November 22, 1993 in London.
Source -
http://www.biography.com/people/anthony-burgess-9231506#awesm=~oDCEtndflRF3dR
Curriculum Ties: Politics, Psychology
Challenge Issues: Language; Violence; Sex; Rape
All You Need Is Kill
Title:
All You Need Is Kill
Author: Hiroshi Sakurazaka
ISBN: 978-1421527611
Publisher: Haikasoru
Copyright: 2009
Genre: Science Fiction
Age
Range: 16+
Reader’s Annotation: Keiji Kiriya is a new recruit in the
United Defense Force that dies on his first mission, but he mysteriously wakes
up to repeat the battle over and over in a time loop.
Plot Summary: The earth is invaded by a species called “mimics”
that eat the soil and regurgitate poison. No military has been able to defeat
them or the biological spikes they hurl at soldiers. On Keiji Kiriya’s first
sortie with the United Defense Force, he is killed in action. He wakes up to
the day before the battle. Through a series these repeat days, Keiji figures
out that he is stuck in a time loop. Taking advantage of the time and
experience in battle, Keiji becomes a fierce pilot of his exosuit called a
jacket. During one of the repeat battles, he catches the eye of a female
fighter whose jacket is painted up in red. She too knows about what might cause
the time loop. Can they work together to defeat the mimics and escape time?
Critical Evaluation: The first thoughts of this plot might
make an evaluator think that it is another campy sci-fi pulp novel. When
reading the book there are elements, the redeeming qualities are found within
the characters. Keiji is a teenager, barely an adult, out of bootcamp. He is
faced with the harsh reality of war. When stuck in the time loop, he overcomes
the feelings of depression and apathy. He decides that he must become the best
warrior he can be. It is that personal determination that is admirable in
Keiji’s character. Interactions with other characters show the reality and high
stress environments that soldier operate in.
Author Information: Hiroshi Sakurazaka was born in 1970.
After a career in information technology, he published his first novel,
Wizards’ Web, in 2003. His 2004 short story, “Saitama Chainsaw Massacre,” won
the 16th SF Magazine Reader’s Award. His other novels include Slum Online and
Characters (cowritten with Hiroki Azuma). Source:
http://authors.simonandschuster.com/hiroshi-sakurazaka/61982790
Curriculum Ties: Theoretical Physics, Psychology, Physical
Fitness
Challenge Issues: Violence; Language
Booktalk Ideas: Time Warp – A discussion or pitch could be
given based on the idea of what one could do if they had an endless amount of
tries on that day. Further moving into Keiji’s situation and story.
Battle Royal
Title: Battle Royal
Author: Koushun Takami
ISBN: 978-1569317785
Publisher: Viz Media
Copyright: 2003
Genre: Horror/Action
Age
Range: 16+
Reader’s Annotation: Lured by a study trip, a class from
Shiroiwa Junior High School has been gassed, awoken in a classroom, given
weapons, and told that only one student can survive to get off the island.
Plot Summary: Japan
has become a police state known as the Republic of Greater East
Asia. Infrequently, the government selects fifty
classes of high school students to be sequestered on an island. While on the
island, they are forced to kill one another. Only one student may leave each
island. Originally created as military research, it gains popularity on
television turning victors into pop stars. While the country watches brutal
violence, the government uses the battles as a way to terrorize the population
into submission.
Shuya
Nanahara is one of the Shiroiwa
Junior High School
students that were on a bus to a study trip. He and his classmates were awoken
in a school on an evacuated island with mental collars around their necks. A
short briefing reveals that they are one of the classes selected to kill each
other. The students are expected to leave the class out into the island one by
one with a pack that has a tool or weapon. The metal collar acts as both a
tracking device and an explosive device if students linger in a “Forbidden
Zone” for too long. As students kill one another, the inhabitable grid of the
island shrinks forcing more deaths. Shaky alliances are formed as Shuya and his
fellow classmates find out who does and does not have the killer instinct.
Critical Evaluation: With the popularity of the Hunger
Games, it is important to include alternate and predating materials. This book
warns about the dangers of a totalitarian government form a Japanese point of
view. Many of the concepts of the book explore the idea of man versus man
conflicts. It also explores the choices that some people make when forced with
extreme circumstances much like Lord of the Flies. It has plenty of action,
suspense, and relatable teenaged dialog that will motivate boys back into
reading.
Author Information: Koushun Takami (高見 広春
Takami Kōshun, born 1969) is best known as the author of the novel Battle
Royale, originally published in Japanese, and later translated into English by Yuji
Oniki and published by Viz Media. Takami was born in Amagasaki,
Hyōgo Prefecture
near Osaka and
grew up in the Kagawa Prefecture of Shikoku. After graduating from Osaka University
with a degree in literature, he dropped out of Nihon University's
liberal arts correspondence course program. From 1991 to 1996, he worked for
the news company Shikoku Shimbun, reporting on
various fields including politics, police reports and economics. Source -
http://battleroyale.wikia.com/wiki/Koushun_Takami
Curriculum Ties: History, Psychology
Challenge Issues: Violence; Language
Booktalk Ideas: This book could be pitched as an alternative
to the Hunger Games to older teens. Put the class or group of teens in
alphabetical order and divide them by sex. Next, walk them through the
beginning scenario of the book and explain the premise.
Bless Me Ultima
Title: Bless Me Ultima
Author: Rudolfo Anaya
ISBN: 978-0446675369
Publisher: Warner Books
Copyright: 1999 (1973)
Genre: Historical Fiction
Age
Range: 13+
Reader’s Annotation: Antonio Márez y Luna is shown how to
navigate the future and connect to the past by Ultima, a curandera who takes
Tony under her wing to teach him the healing herbs of the desert and the
ancient ways of its people.
Plot Summary: Antonio Márez y Luna (Tony) tells the story of
his youth as an adult. He describes the condition of the small town of Guadalupe, New
Mexico post World War Two. Tony begins the story when
he is about to turn seven and Ultima, the midwife at his birth, comes to live
with them. Reaching the age of reason, Ultima guides Tony through different
deaths he sees, assisting her with the purification of uncle Lucas from the
Trementina sisters, and surviving through a mysterious illness.
Tony is
conflicted. Does he follow the golden carp his father’s people use to worship? Or, does he pray to the Virgin Mary and God
the Father? After receiving his first Holy Communion, Tony is disillusioned
about religion because the Host did not explain all of the questions he had
about life and knowledge. Tony battles with the divide between the pagan,
wandering background of his father’s cattleman side and the grounded, staunch
Catholic beliefs of his mother’s farming side. Its lack of enlightenment pushes
him more toward Ultima and the truth found in nature.
Critical Evaluation: Bless Me, Ultima is easily one of the
best known Chicano books of all time. Anaya’s work is a Quinto Sol award
winner. It is a remarkable book that explores what spirituality is. We follow
Tony as he figures out that there are the Old World
ways of believing the various myths of the land and stories of ancestors. Anaya
explores the possible hang-ups that come with organized religion. He asks the tough
questions that some need further proof or explanation. Through Tony, Anaya
blends together the old beliefs with the new religion of thought as Tony tries
to learn how to blend his two families together.
Author Information: Rudolfo Anaya is professor emeritus of
English at the University
of New Mexico. He was one
of the first winners of the Premio Quinto Sol National Chicano literary award.
Winner of the PEN Center USA West Award for Fiction for his novel Alburquerque,
he is best-loved for his classic bestseller Bless Me, Ultima. His other works
include Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, Jalamanta, Tortuga,
Heart of Aztlan , and The Anaya Reader. He has also written numerous short
stories, essays, and children's books, including The Farolitos of Christmas and
Maya's Children. Source -
http://www.amazon.com/Bless-Me-Ultima-Rudolfo-Anaya/dp/0446675369
Curriculum Ties: Folklore, Spanish, History
Challenge Issues: Magic; Language; Violence; Sexual
Inferences
Blood and Chocolate
Author: Annette Curtis Klause
ISBN: 978-0385734219
Publisher: Ember
Copyright: 1997
Genre: Fantasy-Horror
Age
Range: 13-18
Reader’s Annotation: When a sixteen-year-old werewolf,
Vivian Gandillon, falls in love with a regular boy, she begins to live the
uncomfortably separation between her two worlds.
Plot Summary: Vivian Gandillon is a sixteen-year-old
loup-garoux. She is a werewolf like her father, the old leader of the pack, and
mother. She has a group of werewolf friends called the Five: Rafe, Finn,
Willem, Ulf, and Gregory. In their old location, the Five started to scare
humans with their wolfish half-form. One former member of the Five, Axel, had
accidental killed a girl and been seen after changing back into a human.
Arrested and imprisoned, the Five kill another human to make it appear as a
serial killer was on the loose freeing Axel. Because Axel endangered the pack,
Vivian’s father killed Axel. Soon after, a group of neighbors set the pack’s
house on fire. Vivian’s father and a few others were killed during the fire.
The pack was forced to move on leaderless.
In the new
town, Vivian starts high school. All of the girls are intimidated and jealous
of her good looks. Wanting to be accepted by human society, Vivian peruses a
“meat-boy” named Aiden. She starts dating him against her mother’s wishes. Meanwhile,
the pack is restless without a leader. Esmé, Vivan’s mother, and Astrid, Ulf’s
mother, fight over a young man named Gabriel who is more interested in Vivian
regardless of her rejections. The pack decides to elect a leader in the Old way
by the Ordeal and the Bitch’s Dance. Each is a one-against-all fight that
determines who the alpha male or female is. Gabriel wins the Ordeal. Astrid
attacks Esmé with killer intentions during the Bitch’s Dance. Vivian jumps in
to save her mother’s life thereby becoming the alpha female and Gabriel’s mate.
She runs away with this realization, and Gabriel makes it clear to her that he
will wait as long as she needs.
Vivian’s relationship
heats up with Aiden, and she wants to show him her true forms before they are
intimate. He crouches afraid in a corner throwing things at her. She jumps out
of the window so that she doesn’t do anything harmful to him. The next day, she
wakes up with human blood on her nails and no memory of the rest of the night.
The news says a man was killed by a wild animal. It happens again, including a
human hand she finds on the floor. Convinced she is the murderer, she douses
herself in kerosene, but before she can light the match she is stopped. Ulf
tells Vivian that Rafe and Astrid were setting her up for the murders as
revenge for the Bitch’s Dance.
The second
victim was carrying a note for Vivian from Aiden. He wanted to meet her for old
times sake, but it is a trap. Aiden pulls a gun on Vivian with silver bullets.
Before they can settle their dispute, Astrid and Rafe show up with the intent
to kill Aiden and frame Vivian. But, Gabriel is gathering the pack to pass
Judgment on Astrid and Rafe. Will Aiden shoot Vivian? Will Astrid and Rafe kill
them both and frame Vivian? Will Gabriel and the pack show up in time?
Critical Evaluation: In 1998, Blood and Chocolate won a YALSA
Award for Best Books for Young Adults. This story is a good example of what
expectations are heaped on teens. Vivian is expected to live and love the
loup-garoux life while living in the human world. After the Bitch’s Dance
fight, she is expected to become the Queen Bitch and be Gabriel’s mate. Teens
want to be able to rule their own lives and make their own decisions.
Author Information: Annette Curtis Klause (born June 20,
1953) is an American writer and librarian, specializing in young adult fiction.
She is currently a children's materials selector for Montgomery County Public
Libraries in Montgomery County,
Maryland. Born in Bristol, England,
she now lives in Hyattsville,
Maryland with her husband Mark
and their cats. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature and a
Master of Library Science degree from the University
of Maryland, College Park. Source -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annette_Curtis_Klause
Curriculum Ties: English, Folklore
Challenge Issues: Violence; Sexuality; Language
Booktalk Ideas: Folklore – One could start talking about the
folklore of werewolves and weave the storyline of Vivian right into the speech.
Brave New World
Title: Brave New World
Author: Aldous Huxley
ISBN: 978-0060850524
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Copyright: 2006 (1932)
Genre: Science Fiction
Age
Range: 15+
Reader’s Annotation: Take a peek at the dystopian world of
science gone wild to please every person to fit into society’s design.
Plot Summary: The World
State is a peaceful,
stable global society that is limited to two billion people in the urban areas.
Food, water, and other resources are plentiful. People no longer give birth.
Children are, “decanted’ by hatcheries. These hatcheries produce people that
are genetically modified for detailed job specifications and intelligence
levels that fit within the societal caste system. The alphas and betas rule as
they were decanted from one single egg. The deltas, epsilons and gammas are the
grunt workers that are limited in their intelligence and physical growth. One
egg could spawn ninety-six of these children using the “Bokanovsky’s Process.”
Due to the manipulated lack of intelligence and ambition, they are easier to
control to keep society harmonious.
The society
is full of manipulations. For the economy to keep going, citizens are
brainwashed to not fix what they have and always buy something new. They are
constantly engaged in social activities and community. If someone is angry,
sad, or stressed, they are to take soma. Soma is a drug that mellows people out
as a personal “holiday.” Since reproduction is done by a hatchery, sex has
become a social and recreational activity. It is part of the conditioning
process that happens as a child like zipper play. The mantra is “everyone
belongs to everyone else.” Monogamous relationships usually happen after fifty.
People typically die at sixty.
Lenina
Crowne is a hatchery worker that follows the rules of society and is quite
happy with her life. Bernard Marx is an alpha plus, the top caste. He is
shorter and skinnier than most alpha pluses. It gives him an inferiority
complex. As a psychologist, he figures out all of the beliefs that their people
hold as truth are just whispers in their ears. With this knowledge and the
desire to be an individual, Bernard is often a social outcast. Likewise, his
best friend, Helmholtz Watson, is the more than perfect alpha plus that wants
to write poetry.
On a trip
to the Savage Reservation, Bernard and Lenina witness native ceremonies that
they think are savage. They also meet Linda. She worked for Bernard’s Boss and
came there with him. She became pregnant and gave birth to John the Savage
living with the natives out of shame. They lived a hard life. Bernard decides
to bring them back. Linda goes straight to the hospital and is put on a
constant stream of soma. John becomes a spectacle, and Bernard finally gains
the acceptance he is looking for. As quickly as the fame came, it was gone.
Lenina tries to seduce John but fails as he attacks and accuses her of being an
“imprudent strumpet.” Linda falls into a coma and passes away in front of John.
A group of children that are being conditioned about death annoys John to the
point where he throws soma out of the window and starts a riot.
Bernard,
Helmholtz, and John are all brought before the Resident World Controller for Western Europe. They do not know their fate, but they are
pretty sure it involves banishment.
Critical Evaluation: Brave New World is an important piece
of literature to the world abroad. It warns of reproductive technology,
psychological manipulation, and classical conditioning that create a society of
sheep that is neatly ordered and divided. The Modern Library Editorial Board
ranked it number five on its list of best English language novels of the
twentieth century. It is an important book to read as a teen. It uses an
adverse moral system to teach them about how to find themselves as an
individual when most teens are just trying to fit in. It also points out that
individuals are rewarded in some ways and damned in others. While it is a
satire about what the world could be like, it also serves as a reminder to
those tens to embrace each others differences. What makes us different makes us
strong. It is through diversity that we are able to overcome adversity.
Author Information: Aldous Huxley was born July 26, 1894, in
Godalming, England. He published his first
book in 1916 and worked on the periodical Athenaeum 1919–1921. Thereafter he
devoted himself largely to his own writing and spent much of his time in Italy until the late 1930s, when he settled in California. He
established himself as a major author in his first two published novels, Crome
Yellow and Antic Hay. Author Aldous Huxley expressed his deep distrust of
20th-century politics and technology in his sci-fi novel Brave New World, a
nightmarish vision of the future. Source
-
http://www.biography.com/people/aldous-huxley-9348198#synopsis&awesm=~oDwPf0Tka99eoa
Curriculum Ties: Censorship, Political Science, Social
Science,
Challenge Issues: Anti-Family; Anti-Religion
Booktalk Ideas: Utopia – Draw teens in by explaining the
rules of the utopian society and flip it on them to talk about the dark seedy
side of society. Soma – Explain what soma is and what it makes one feel, but
also explain what it blocks and how it affects their life.
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