I recently read a few 2005 Young Adult titles that merit recommendations if you haven't already read them: Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue by Julius Lester; Every Man for Himself: Ten Short Stories About Being a Guy edited by Nancy E. Mercado; Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX by Karen Blumenthal.
Day of Tears is a work of historical fiction set around the real event of the largest slave auction in American history --held in Savannah, GA on March 2 and 3, 1859. Lester uses historical accounts from the sale of approximately 430 slaves from the plantation of Pierce Butler. It reads very much like a play, complete with a list of characters at the beginning, and I easily pictured this story being told on stage. I found it to be a wonderful source of accessible reading of this painful and important piece of shameful history. It reads fast as you're drawn into the beautifully balanced perspectives of the various people involved: the slaves, the masters, the slave sellers, the abolishonists, etc.
Every Man for Himself is a collection of short stories focused on the "guy experience" written by prominent, male young adult authors. My favorites were Shockers by David Lubar, Strange Powers by Craig Thompson (graphic novel style), The Prom Prize by Walter Dean Myers, and No More Birds Will Die Today by Paul Acampora. A great way to get a taste for all of these writers...
I had first heard about Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America as a young adult book talk at NJLA last April and had been meaning to read it ever since. Because it's a 2005 GSBA contender, I finally got around to it (nonfiction books are so easy to overlook in all the fiction there is to take up my reading time!). Boy, I'm glad I did read it at long last! Being a "Title IX baby" (born around the same time as the law), I, like so many others who don't know what it was like to be a girl growing up before it, tend to take the opportunities girls and women are given in education these days for granted. Blumenthal notes that in writing this book she was attempting to keep the history of Title IX from disappearing. An important and valuble read for understanding women's rights and keeping those rights alive and thriving today and in the future. A well-worth-it break from reading novels!
Day of Tears is a work of historical fiction set around the real event of the largest slave auction in American history --held in Savannah, GA on March 2 and 3, 1859. Lester uses historical accounts from the sale of approximately 430 slaves from the plantation of Pierce Butler. It reads very much like a play, complete with a list of characters at the beginning, and I easily pictured this story being told on stage. I found it to be a wonderful source of accessible reading of this painful and important piece of shameful history. It reads fast as you're drawn into the beautifully balanced perspectives of the various people involved: the slaves, the masters, the slave sellers, the abolishonists, etc.
Every Man for Himself is a collection of short stories focused on the "guy experience" written by prominent, male young adult authors. My favorites were Shockers by David Lubar, Strange Powers by Craig Thompson (graphic novel style), The Prom Prize by Walter Dean Myers, and No More Birds Will Die Today by Paul Acampora. A great way to get a taste for all of these writers...
I had first heard about Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America as a young adult book talk at NJLA last April and had been meaning to read it ever since. Because it's a 2005 GSBA contender, I finally got around to it (nonfiction books are so easy to overlook in all the fiction there is to take up my reading time!). Boy, I'm glad I did read it at long last! Being a "Title IX baby" (born around the same time as the law), I, like so many others who don't know what it was like to be a girl growing up before it, tend to take the opportunities girls and women are given in education these days for granted. Blumenthal notes that in writing this book she was attempting to keep the history of Title IX from disappearing. An important and valuble read for understanding women's rights and keeping those rights alive and thriving today and in the future. A well-worth-it break from reading novels!
