Genre Six

Book One:

Bibliography:
Yang, Gene Luen.2006.AMERICAN BORN CHINESE.Illustrator: Lark Pien. New York, New York.First Second.ISBN:1596433736

Plot Summary:
AMERICAN BORN CHINESE is a graphic novel that illustrates the tale of three characters. The Monkey King from a Chinese fable is born from a rock; when lightening strikes the rock the Monkey King is born. The Monkey King was granted great powers and is loved by his fellow monkeys. Yet when he is not invited, nor allowed in because he is a monkey and doesn't wear shoes. He is upset and crashes the party anyways. He goes around causing trouble to every place he goes to. He even carves his name into the five pillars which is actually the hands of Tze-Yo-Tzuh his creator. The second tale is about a second generation immigrant from China. Jin we learn about his life and how he tries to avoid the other Chinese boy who moves in because he wants to fit in with the normal looking kids, yet he eventually becomes friends with him. This tale illustrates the struggles Jin faces starting from the teacher mispronouncing his name. he is made fun of, the students think he is related to the other Asian girl who is in the class. He also develops a crush on Amelia who he ends up saving and asking out; she accepts right away. The third tale starts whith Danny who is about to go out on a date with Melanie when he finds out about his Chinese cousin Chin-Kee who comes to live with them. Chin-Kee fits the typical Chinese stereotypes. He insults Dannys date. He also causes problems at school. In the end all three stories tie in together.

Critical Analysis:
An interesting story of tales that illustrate the typical Chinese stereotypes from their fables, accents, and etc... it captures the true essence of Chinese culture. the language used in the book definitely makes it a book for the high schoolers;due to curse words used. The graphics used are very detail to capture the Chinese culture. A possible theme for the story is to be yourself and accept who you are.

Review Excerpts:

"With vibrant colors and visual panache, indie writer-illustrator Yang (Rosary Comic Book0 ) focuses on three characters in tales that touch on facets of Chinese American life." "...Yang helps the humor shine by using his art to exaggerate or contradict the words, creating a synthesis that marks an accomplished graphic storyteller. The stories have a simple, engaging sweep to them, but their weighty subjects--shame, racism, and friendship--receive thoughtful, powerful examination." -Booklist (September 1, 2006 (Vol. 103, No. 1))

"A National Book Award finalist and ALA's Printz Award winner, this fable stars the mythological Monkey King, realistic youngster Jin Wang of Taiwanese parentage, and TV sitcom teen Danny. All three are dogged by an unwanted identity and humiliated by others' prejudice." -Library Journal (March 15, 2007)

"True to its origin as a Web comic, this story's clear, concise lines and expert coloring are deceptively simple yet expressive. Even when Yang slips in an occasional Chinese ideogram or myth, the sentiments he's depicting need no translation. Yang accomplishes the remarkable feat of practicing what he preaches with this book: accept who you are and you'll already have reached out to others." -Publishers Weekly (June 12, 2006)


Connections:

Have students research a fable from their culture and then create a cartoon to illustrate the fable

Have students research racial stereotypes throughout history and discuss them amongst the class.

Have students research social issues using comic books from various eras.



Book Two:

Bibliography:
Lord,Cynthia. 2008.RULES. New York, New York.Scholastic Press. ISBN:0439443830

Plot Summary:
RULES is a heartwarming story about a twelve-year-old girl who wishes to make her autistic eight-year-old brother normal while unintentionally building a new friendship with a boy restricted to a wheelchair and unable to communicate without the help of his “communication book”. Catherine has compiled a list of rules to help her brother, David, get through life. One of the reasons for this list is to assist David in what would be considered common sense issues for most people. “Say “thank you” when someone gives you a present (even if you don’t like it)” and “If the bathroom door is closed, knock (especially if Catherine has a friend over)!” are examples of common sense rules. Another reason for these rules is to help David deal with people. These include rules such as “When you want to get out of answering something, distract the questioner with another question.” and “Sometimes people laugh when they like you. But sometimes they laugh to hurt you.” Though Catherine would love to eliminate any chance of her brother drawing unwanted attention to their family, she has unique relationship with her brother that brings out patience, concern, and love for him.
Despite Catherine’s desire to be “normal”, while tagging along to her brother’s occupational therapy appointments, she begins to build a friendship with Jason, a boy her age that is confined to a wheelchair who can only communicate with the help of his “communication book”. As their friendship blooms, she helps Jason expand his vocabulary to be a little more age appropriate and to include a wide variety of adjectives to help him express himself with more clarity.
While Catherine’s friendship with Jason is developing, she is also working to become friends with Kristi, the new neighbor who has just moved in next door. As Catherine tries to hide her less than perfect family and her friendship with Jason, she finds herself showing a side of her character that is not very attractive or admirable. She comes to the realization that her relationship with her brother is special and that her friendship with Jason is more fulfilling than she could have imagined.

Critical Analysis:
Cynthia Lord does a fantastic job of describing the unique relationship between a sister and her autistic brother. She is very effective in showing how David depends on and trusts his sister. Catherine gets irritated with her brother, but the way Lord has Catherine deal with him is thoughtful and sincere. The rules that Catherine sets up for David are done so to keep him safe and to teach him how to get through life a little more smoothly. Lord uses Catherine’s character to show how people can deal with diversity and do the right thing. A possible theme for the story is accepting diversity and understanding that it exists and it is okay.
Review Excerpts:

"The details of autistic behavior are handled well, as are depictions of relationships: Catherine experiences some of the same unease with Jason that others do in the presence of her brother. In the end, Jason helps Catherine see that her rules may really be excuses, opening the way for her to look at things differently. A heartwarming first novel." - Booklist (February 15, 2006 (Vol. 102, No. 12))

"Catherine is an appealing and believable character, acutely self-conscious and torn between her love for her brother and her resentment of his special needs. Middle-grade readers will recognize her longing for acceptance and be intrigued by this exploration of dealing with differences." -Kirkus Review (March 1, 2006)

"This is a great book to help students gain some understanding about autism, while also providing a good read. The author is the mother of an autistic child." - Library Media Connection (October 2006)

Connections:


Book Three:
Have students create 5 rules that would be unique to your family and life that would help to guide an autistic sibling. Be original and creative with your rules.

Catherine helps her friend Jason expand his “communication book” by creating new word cards for him that include a word and a picture to help Jason visualize the word. Create 5 word cards to add to Jason’s “communication book”. Choose words that would be useful and relevant to a teenager.

Throughout the story, Catherine’s parents make the effort to spend extra individual time with David, but tend not to make the same effort for Catherine because David needs special attention. Write a one page essay describing a different way that Catherine’s parents may have handled time management to help her feel like she was just as important to their family even though she didn’t have a special need.



Bibliography:
Green, John. 2007. LOOKING FOR ALASKA. New York, New York.Speak. ISBN:0142402516

Plot Summary:
The book starts with Miles sitting in his living room with his parents waiting for (friends) to show up for his going away party. His mom forced him to have the party but he knew no one would show up and he was not disappointed. Only one geeky girl and her fat boyfriend came and left. His mom asked him if this is why he asked to go to a boarding school. His dad asked if he was influenced because that is where he went. He explained that the reason he wanted to go was because of the famous last words of poet Francois Rabelais “I go to seek a Great Perhaps”. He wants to start over where no one knows him and he can reinvent himself. He goes to a boarding school in Alabama called Culver Creek, his dad’s alma mater. The school is not exactly as he pictured in his mind. No wood paneled walls, plush carpet and Victorian furniture. The school had no air conditioning, cinder block walls, vinyl mattresses and green and white checkered linoleum floor. Miles have never felt such heat. The food in the cafeteria is all fried in the southern tradition. One high point and a favorite of everyone is the bufriedo. This is a fried bean burrito. The Colonel befriends Miles and introduces him to how the school works. Two types of students 1/ regular boarders and like them and then the Weekday Warriors. The Weekday Warriors board at the school but go home to their air-conditioned parents’ mansions every weekend. Also known as the cool kids. The Colonel does not like them or any rich kid. The colonel introduces Miles to Alaska, and Takumi. The Colonel and Alaska are known as great pranksters. The weekday warriors break into Miles room in the middle of the night and takes him to the lake. A school initiation. They usually just throw them in in their underwear. This night however they tape Miles like a mummy and throw him in and say “This is for the Colonel”. He is afraid at first but turns himself over and gets back onto shore. When the colonel finds out he vows to get even. The weekday warriors think that he is the one who ratted out Alaska’s roommate last year and had her expelled. The roommate was caught in the trifecta of expellable offenses sex/smoking joint/ drunk. He did not, it actually turned out to be Alaska who turned in her roommate when she was caught doing something wrong. We don’t find this out until well into the story. The weekday warriors never know. The group go through the school year hanging out sneaking a smoke at what is called the smoking hole (like fishing hole with no fishing just smoking) down by the lake. They also drink and play the normal teenage games. Alaska is obsessed with a quote in a novel by Garcia Marquez “The General and his Labyrinth” the quote is “How will I get out of this labyrinth”. Miles and Alaska discuss how this is probably a labyrinth of suffering. Miles is in love with Alaska but she has a boyfriend named Jake. She flirts with Miles but is dedicated to her boyfriend. Alaska has a bad childhood but she is very tight lipped about it. She spends some weekends with her boyfriend. Alaska decides to get Miles a girlfriend. He has never had one, never had a kiss. The five of them go to a basketball game (mainly for the air-conditioning) and this is Miles first set-up with Lara. The Colonel has a streak of being kicked out of the basketball games. The Culver team loses all but 1 of the games every year. When the Colonel antagonizes the biggest player on the opposite team they run out of the gym and as they go Miles is hit in the head with the basketball, his head hits the floor and he has a concussion. When the friends try to check up on him he throws up on Lara. It takes him a few more months to be able to get together again with Lara. He is too ashamed. She is willing. Thanksgiving rolls around and Alaska asks Miles to stay at school with her. He makes up a story to stay. It is just him and Alaska at the school. The Colonel shows up and invites them to his house for Thanksgiving. Miles sees that he lives in a camper smaller than their dorm room. But sees that the colonel really loves his mom. When they get back from Christmas break they start to plan a pre-prank called Barn Night. The class always have one big school prank a year. This year they plan a pre-prank to throw off The Eagle. The group find ways to fool the dean into believing they are staying at homes for the weekend and go camp out in the barn on the school to pull off the prank. Miles and Takumi are the diversion with firecrackers while The Colonel and Alaska sneak into the office and send out progress report saying some of the weekday warriors are flunking classes. Lara is putting blue dye into the hair gel and shampoo of the guys who threw Miles into the lake. That night after the prank the gang lay around in the barn and drink. They played a game called best day/worst day. You list the best day you ever had then the worst day and whoever has the best story doesn’t have to drink. We find out why Alaska may be so self destructive. When she was eight years old her mom was sitting at the table and Alaska was in her room doing homework when she heard her mom scream. She ran out and saw her mom on the floor holding her head and jerking. She freaked out. She just sat there with her mom. She said she should have called 911 but she sat their screaming and crying until her mom stopped jerking. She sat there for an hour until her dad came home. He screamed at her why didn’t you call 911. Her mom was dead from an aneurysm. This is when Miles realized what Alaska meant when she said she F-Ued everything and failed everyone. Miles and Lara got together that night. After a couple of days Miles and the Colonel went to Alaska’s room one night to celebrate their victory (the pre-prank). The Colonel and Alaska had been “celebrating a lot lately”. Miles didn’t want to drink that night but the colonel and Alaska got very drunk. Alaska asked Miles to hook-up with her. They were kissing and Alaska got sleepy and told Miles “to be continued”. Everyone fell asleep and the phone rang. Alaska got up to answer it. When she came back she was sobbing and saying how many times can I F-U. She was screaming she had to get out of there. Miles and the Colonel created a diversion for her with left over firecrackers. The next morning they woke to the Dean knocking on their door. Everyone in the school was instructed to go to the gym. Alaska had died in a car accident. This hit Miles and the Colonel very hard. They felt responsible since they should not have let her drive drunk. Miles is conflicted because he wonders if she would have been with him. It takes a few days but they finally start going back to class. The Colonel becomes obsessed with what happened. To find the truth to the accident. When investigating they realize she may have committed suicide. This only confuses them more. They go between being sad and angry at her for making them a part of it. They go to clean out her room (looking for things they don’t want her Aunt to find) Miles looks for the book with her favorite quote. Newly written next to the underlined passage is “straight and fast” this makes them think it probably was suicide. The accident- a semi-truck had jack knifed and a police cruiser was in the road with lights and siren on She drove straight into it with no brake marks or swerve. Mr. Hyde handed out their final exam and gave them two weeks to work on it. He used Alaska’s final paper topic from last semester as the exam. It was “How will we ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?” When they can find no sure answer to their question they decide to get on with life. They start to plan a memorial Prank. It is a prank Alaska had been putting together to do in their senior year. It is called Subverting the patriarchal paradigm. Every year they have 2 speakers come to the school and the prank was to have the Junior class speaker be a stripper. Miles has not been able to finish his paper and the night before it is due Takumi slips a paper under their door. He admits he saw Alaska the night she died. She was out trying to find flowers to pick to put on her mom’s grave. Every year she always puts flowers on her grave and this year she had forgotten. She was distraught and saying how she always fails. So now they really believe that she may have committed suicide. And this is what she was so upset about. After reading the note he was inspired to finally finish his paper. In it he talks about living with your labyrinth of suffering by forgiving. You have to forgive others and they have to forgive you, live with things done and left undone. He attributed Alaska to teaching him these things even though he may not have known her well enough to know her last thoughts but that it didn’t keep him from caring for her. His last line was “I will always love Alaska Young my crooked neighbor, with all my crooked heart. Another favorite quote of Alaska’s from a poem.

Critical Analysis: The book contains sexual references, excessive alcohol abuse, smoking, drugs and swearing.The story is told by Miles. The language used is that of a high school student. The vocabulary is very basic. References to the classics in writing and Play writes. Some obscure religious references also, but are easily understood in the context they are used. The author uses humor in his writing to get you to like the characters as well as keep it in the voice of a teenager. There are many references to sex and underage drinking and smoking. The book is divided into before and after. The chapters listed as one hundred thirty-six days before and so on and goes to one hundred thirty-six days after. A school year. I think it is about the influences we all have on each other and that everything is survivable.
Review Excerpts:

"The narrative concludes with an essay Miles writes about this event for his religion class -- an unusually heavy-handed note in an otherwise mature novel, peopled with intelligent characters who talk smart, yet don't always behave that way, and are thus notably complex and realistically portrayed teenagers." - Horn Book (March/April, 2005)

"What sings and soars in this gorgeously told tale is Green's mastery of language and the sweet, rough edges of Pudge's voice. Girls will cry and boys will find love, lust, loss and longing in Alaska's vanilla-and-cigarettes scent." - Kirkus Review starred (March 1, 2005)

"Looking for Alaska will haunt readers with its memorable characters, its literary and philosophical questions about life and death that so fascinate teens, and its ultimate affirmation of a life lived fully." - Library Media Connection (November/December 2005)

Connections:

Have students discuss the significance of the book being divided into Before and After rather than chapters.

Have students write about something that affected his/her life. But write it in the "before" and "after" format.

Discuss Alaska's death. Was it suicide or an accident?