(#32) / Izzy, Willy-Nilly / by Cynthia Voigt / (Book)

 Opening

Bibliographic Information:

Izzy, Willy-Nilly / by Cynthia Voigt

ISBN-13: 9781416903390 / Simon Pulse

p. 336 / $6.98 (Amazon)

1986

Body of Content

Summary: Izzy is a cheerleader just beginning her high school experience.  A popular senior at her school asks her out on a date.  So both attend a party shortly after, where Marcus drinks too much.  Unrelenting, he insists on driving her home – but the effects of alcohol result in a car accident – an accident where he escapes with minor injuries.  Izzy, however, suffers injuries so severe that the doctors decide upon the amputation of one leg – below the knee.  The cheerleader – once a part of the in-crowd – now faces social isolation – as her former friends largely desert her.  The emergence on a fellow outsider (Rosamunde), helps the healing process – as Izzy faces a challenge as a crippled girl trying to cope with the changes and challenges that now arise in her life.    

Critique: Voigt’s work fits under the standard definition of a problem novel.  While the opening chapters deal with a car accident caused by a drunk driver, the real issues within the book rely more on the affects that follow the title character through the rest of the novel.

Once a popular girl, Izzy loses her leg in the aforementioned accident.  Such a tragedy would prove difficult at any stage in life, but the author presents the story within the setting of high school – a trying time on its own right – even without something as severe as amputation as a premise.  The novel becomes a parable.  Izzy loses her friends because of the accident.  The catalyst for that conclusion stems from the accident.  But on a larger level, Voigt is presenting a more universal message – will your friends still be your friends – throughout the unequivocal changes that life and added years bring?

What starts out as a cautionary tale about teenage use of alcohol turns into a problem novel about personal relationships.  Izzy’s physical damage is severe – but the story does not stop there – for it covers the emotional and social distress felt by the title character.  In the end, Izzy, Willy Nilly is a problem novel with a few metaphorical layers to it.  

Teaser: One decision leads to consequences unforeseen – in a cautionary tale of one teenage girl.

Information about the Author: Voigt desired from a young age to become a writer.  Her journey first led her to graduate from Smith College in Massachusetts.  Soon after, she worked for an advertising agency in New York City.  Her travels brought her to New Mexico, where she became a teacher.  She had previously expressed doubts, though, saying, “In college, I had vowed I would never teach, but the minute I walked into a classroom, I loved it” (Scholastic, 2011).

It was not until her divorce from her husband – and subsequent move to Maryland – that Voigt began writing on the side – while teaching second, fifth, and seventh graders.  Voigt would marry a language teacher at her workplace, Walter, who taught Latin and Greek (Scholastic, 2011).

Her works include Dicey’s Song – which won a Newberry Medal in 1983 – along with The Callender Papers – which won the Edgar Allan Poe Award.  Other regarded works include The Runner, On Fortune’s Wheel, and A Solitary Blue (Wikipedia, 2011).   

Supplemental Material

Genre: Drama

Curriculum Ties: Health Education – social issues, drunk driving, physical disabilities

Booktalking Ideas: 1) Would your friends still love you – if you lost your legs in an accident? 2) How would a physical disability change your approach to daily living?

Reading Level: This title could easily find its way into the hands of middle school teens – ages 13-14 – but it is also readable by early high-school freshmen and sophomore students.

Challenge Issues and Defense: The subject matter is rough at times – given the framework of the book – dealing with drug use, social outcasts, and the legless heroine.  But the book is a problem novel that attempts to find teachable moments within this framework – and the author is well-received and acclaimed for some of her earlier works.

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: The book represents a problem novel – and I wanted to include a title written in the 1980s to balance the collection – since some of the other problem novels (cf. Hope in Patience) represent recent titles.

Last Thoughts

References:

Scholastic. (2011). Cynthia Voigt: Biography [Webpage]. Retrieved from

            http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/cynthia-voigt

Wikipedia. (2011). Cynthia Voigt [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynthia_Voigt

Listening to (Music):

Artist – FM Static / Album – “Critically Ashamed”  

(#24) / Ordinary People / by Judith Guest / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

Ordinary People / by Judith Guest

ISBN-13: 978-0140065176 / Penguin (Non-Classics)

p. 272 / $10.20 (Amazon)

1976

Body of Content

Summary: The Jarretts are the everyday family – typical Americans through-and-through.  But circumstances change for the family, as their older son (Buck) dies in a water accident, while the younger son (Conrad) escapes the drowning fate of his brother.  Filled with survivor’s guilt – as he, the younger, less strong of the two brothers – Conrad struggles to deal with the tragic event.  Ultimately, Conrad attempts to take his own life, cutting his wrists in the family’s bathroom.  His parents – Calvin and Beth – seek out professional counseling services for their son – turning to psychiatrist Dr. Tyrone Berger.  Other friendships develop – Jeannine Pratt as a love interest and Joe Lazenby as a sport buddy on Conrad’s swim team.  But the road to recovery is a long one – as Ordinary People describes how a typical family deals with the unexpected and tragic events that enter their lives.

Critique: The book is a psychological book – well versed from the author’s educational major in college.  One of the reoccurring themes in the book is shame – how Conrad must deal with it and learn to overcome it.  Having attempted to kill himself in the family’s bathroom, that room holds a connotation of shame – as Conrad’s parents discovered him there – bleeding to death.  Conrad bears the physical scars of his suicide attempt – often wearing long shirts to hide the marks.  Dealing with self-esteem and self-identity issues, Conrad doubts his ability to find love, though one character (Jeannine) helps him in this regard.  Still, their relationship is often talked about within sessions with Dr. Berger.   

The novel deals with grief, death, and loss – but given that the main character must strive to find a way to live with the events – with both his brother’s death and his ill-fated attempt – the novel deals with shame.  Through the constant physical reminders and embarrassment, Conrad must overcome the shame that overshadows a person when they fail at suicide – and more questions than answers enter the equation.      

Teaser: “After a family loses their son in a water accident, they must face the prospect of losing their other son who survived.”

Information about the Author: Hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Guest studied English and psychology at the University of Michigan.  Shortly thereafter, she married, started teaching a first-grade elementary class, and had her first of three sons.  Guest faced rejection for publishers earlier in her ventures into novel writing – with one publisher rejecting the manuscript for Ordinary People saying, “While the book has some satiric bite, overall the level of writing does not sustain interest and we will have to decline it” (Guest, 2005).

But one publisher did pick up the novel – and Viking Press followed by printing her second novel Second Heaven.  With various publishers, Guest further her writing credits – with the works Killing Time in St. Cloud, Errands, and The Tarnished Eye (Guest, 2005).  

Supplemental Material

Genre: Drama

Curriculum Ties: Psychology – suicide, recovery, self-esteem, survivor’s guilt  

Booktalking Ideas: 1) If your sibling died in the same accident that you survived, how would you react? 2) How do attempted suicides affect surrounding family members?

Reading Level: The main character is a teen – and about survivor’s guilt – and thus, it represents a problem novel dealing with teen suicide.  Teenagers throughout high school (15-19) represent the intended audience.  This book would prove difficult, though, within a lower educational setting – if attempted for educational use in middle school, given the premise.  

Challenge Issues and Defense: The book deals with a teenager’s life – after an attempted suicide effort.  The book, thus, contains a heavy premise.  The main character in the book also talks about his sex life and habits in the novel within discussions with his therapist. The film adaption won the best picture award from the Academy – and overall, the work is known as a novel of merit.  Such supports help defense of the book. 

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: The book is very simple – (i.e not overly dramatized like some problem novels) – but the novel is well-written.  The author portrays a complicated issue – as the reader wants the best for the character, as his story develops.

Last Thoughts

References:

Guest, J. (2005). Bio [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.judithguest.com/bio.htm

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Sara Groves / Album – “Invisible Empires”  

(#4) / Hope in Patience / by Beth Fehlbaum / (Book)

Opening

Bibliographic Information:

Hope in Patience / by Beth Fehlbaum

ISBN-13: 978-1934813416 / WestSide Books 

p. 312 / $13.03 (Amazon)

Body of Content

Summary: Ashley Asher now lives with her biological father.  But that is only a recent development.  Ashley lived for years with her biological mother and step-father – suffering years in silence – as her step-father molested and raped her.  Set in rural Texas, Hope in Patience pens the sad yet resilient story of a high-school girl coping with sexual abuse from her step-father and emotional neglect from her mother.  Now in a new town, Ashley hopes to move on – helped by new and unlikely friends at school and a better, more supportive domestic situation.  The events of the past are relived through conversations with her therapist – hoping to find a resolution to her struggles. Still, Ashley feels more than abuse, as the past events have damaged her self-image and ability to act socially with classmates.  Grown-ups have noticed her social withdrawal and isolation – and Ashley wonders how long she can keep the secret that is eating her from the inside out.    

Critique: The problem novel is not a new concept.  But authors in recent years write the tales in vivid honesty.  Former decades employed stock characters; recent decades present characters more real to life (cf. Cart, 2011, p. 32-35).  Fehlbaum writes such a tale – and writes it effectively.  The book is filled with characters that are difficult to pigeonhole – as the author included roles that extend beyond typical archetypes.

Dr. Matt is her therapist – but few counselors employ his tactics.  Dr. Matt supports Ashley – showing genuine concern for her – but he embodies a different kind of honesty, truth, and shock-and-awe than that of many lovely-dove, stock characters from lesser literary works.  Some of the most emotionally charged exchanges in the novel occur between Dr. Matt and Ashley.  And the reader is allowed into these therapy sessions with all the emotional rawness bubbling to the page’s surface.  Dr. Matt stands a chief (though indirect) figure in her recovery process.

The opposite is true of Coach Griffin – who stands as a key (though indirect) figure who blocks the way for her recovery.  Coach Griffin is not the same man who hurt her (i.e. Charlie), but he does embody some of the same flaws.  Stuck in a time-warp, the Coach is a football coach besides an American “history” teacher (quotation marks added for sarcastic intent).  His equally warped sense of curriculum finds the teacher spending an enormous amount of time devoted to the Second World War.  But Griffin’s knowledge contains a blind spot – not willing to admit to the wrongness of the Japanese internment in America.

That detail is a metaphor in the story.  Griffin is not willing to admit to the event and the implications.  He is not denying it – but he wants to ignore it.  Dr. Matt is willing to admit to the events and implications of Ashley’s rape.  He is not denying it – in fact, he is facing it.  Both characters behave in a manner that releases them from stock descriptions.  They stand on each side of Ashley – one (Coach) telling her past evils do not matter – the other (Doctor) telling her that her sufferings have present consequences.  Fehlbaum performs the dialogue well – as Ashley must deal with both these influences – and ultimately embrace one opinion to the exclusion of the other.   

Teaser: Ashley – the victim of sexual abuse at the hands of her step-father – relocates to a new city.  But the years of abuse never seem far off.

Information about the Author: Beth Fehlbaum is married with three daughters – with one daughter following in her mother’s footsteps and pursuing writing.  Fehlbaum is currently a fifth-grade teacher in East Texas – having majored in English and Education during her time at the University of Texas.  While Hope in Patience reads fine, as a stand-alone title, Fehlbaum intends to write a Patience trilogy (Fehlbaum, 2011).

Detailing the occasion for the book, Fehlbaum’s own words paint the catalyst for the novel, as she says, “I was inspired to write this story by my own recovery from childhood sexual abuse.  In the process of working through my own grief, disbelief, and anger, I was writing poems and short stories, and sharing them with my (long-suffering) therapist.  One day, he suggested that I try writing a novel” (Goodreads, 2008).

Supplemental Material

Genre: Drama / Problem Novel 

Curriculum Ties: Psychology – counseling techniques / emotional abuse and recovery

Booktalking Ideas: 1) Will Ashley forfeit her life – filled with an inner sea of pain – or find another resolution to her abuse? 2) Will Ashley ever reconcile with her birth mother? 

Reading Level: The interest level may dip to grade 6 – but numerous review sites provide cautions.  For School Library Journal, the site deems the book for grade 8 and up – while Booklist contains even further hesitations – calling for grade 10 and up (Amazon, 2011). 

Challenge Issues and Defense: The language is not only intense – and rather crass – including 

numerous f-bombs. The premise of sexual abuse also makes this book controversial. This is a book difficult to place in a school library intended for younger grades, but relatively safe in a public YA department.  The author is writing a problem novel – and the premise and language is a requirement to write a realistic take on the issues.    

Personal Reasons for Inclusion: As a former runner, I enjoyed the cross country backdrop.  The story, itself, is a worthy tale – of recovery and hope – even against the hardest of circumstances.

Last Thoughts

References:

Amazon. (2011). Hope in Patience [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Hope-

Patience-Beth-Fehlbaum/dp/1934813419/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322018732&sr=8-1

Cart, M. (2011). Young adult literature: From romance to realism. Chicago, IL: ALA.   

Fehlbaum, B. (2011). Real life: A very basic biography [Webpage]. Retrieved from

http://www.bethfehlbaumya.com/bio.htm

Goodreads. (2008). Beth Fehlbaum [Webpage]. Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/

author/show/1301011.Beth_Fehlbaum

Listening to (Music):

Artist – Matchbox Twenty / Album – “Yourself or Someone like You”