Young Love and Loss

"Nothing ever really goes away - it just changes into something else.  Something beautiful."

Beautiful is a great word to use to describe this novel, Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler.  Other good words to describe this novel are: devastating, heart-breaking, joyous, and free.

I heard about this novel last year because it was being challenged (people were trying to have it removed from libraries) in some parts of the country.  Adults weren't happy with the sexual activity portrayed in the story, or with the part of the storyline in which two teenage girls agree to try to find twenty boys to hook up with in one summer.

After reading this novel, it's clear to me that those who challenged based on those grounds didn't read it (as is often the case).  If they had read it, they would have seen it for what it actually is.  A beautiful story about two girls who lose one of the most important people in their lives, and try to cope with their loss however they can.

Anna and Frankie are the teenage girls at the center of the story.  They are next-door neighbors and two-thirds of a lifelong best friend trio.  The third member is Frankie's older brother, Matt.  Two years older than the girls, Matt has always been their protector and leader.  At the age of ten, Anna fell in love with him.  On the night of her fifteenth birthday, she finally finds out that Matt is in love with her too.  For the next month, Anna and Matt meet secretly at night, testing out their new relationship and figuring out the best way to tell Frankie.  Matt wants to be the one to tell her and makes Anna promise not to say anything.  He plans on telling Frankie when they take their annual family trip to California.

But then the unthinkable happens.  He dies the day before they are to leave for the trip.

After a grief-filled year, Anna is now the one making the trip with Frankie and her parents to Zanzibar Bay, California.  Frankie has spent the year trying to deal with her brother's death with makeup, boys, and secret cigarettes.  Anna has spent the year trying to fulfill her promise to Matt and take care of Frankie.  In preparation for California, Frankie decides that they should make it their goal to meet one boy per day, twenty in all, so that they can each have one summer fling during what is supposed to be the Absolute Best Summer Ever.  The trip unfolds in ways that neither girl could predict, as emotions are broken open and wounds are made and healed.

I really enjoyed this book and the emotional journey on which it took me.  My heart broke for both girls for different reasons, and I believe readers will be able to associate with either Frankie or Anna.  Even if you've never suffered a loss as they did, the characters are so personable and easily relatable that it's easy to put yourself in their shoes.  Readers will find themselves rooting for these girls, and pulling for them in their struggle to figure out how to live the new post-Matt lives in which they find themselves.

Recommended for readers in high school and above.

Digital Media and Education

Though I may be a little behind, I finally watched the PBS special "Digital Media" that aired last month.  If you haven't watched it, especially if you're an educator, I encourage you to do so immediately.  It can be viewed through the link below:

http://www.pbs.org/parents/digital-media/

Watching this special gave me a couple of different reactions.  First, I was greatly inspired.  While the schools and programs featured in this show are undoubtedly special when it comes to the tools with which they work, the message and ideas are universal.  Digital media is here to stay, and kids need to be equipped with the skills necessary for using it to their advantage.  I immediately started thinking about how I can use the technology that I have with my students to enhance their learning and allow them to create to their full ability.  We don't have as many technology tools in my library as I would like, but I have more than a lot of programs and I have been guilty of not using it as I should.  That will change.

The fact is technology isn't going anywhere.  As much as some of us would like to stick to the traditional methods of learning with which we were educated, we can't.  It may be scary, and it may be intimidating, but it's reality.  Our kids are going to be using these technologies for the rest of their lives and they need to be taught how to use it ethically and responsibly.  This leads to my second reaction.

We need librarians and media specialists now more than ever before.  In case you didn't hear that, let me repeat.  WE NEED LIBRARIANS!!  I can't count the number of times I've been questioned about what I actually do anymore.  The general public seems to be convinced that because we have the Internet and e-Readers (Kindles, Nooks, iPads, etc.) that librarians are becoming careers of the past.  They couldn't be more wrong.

Librarians are necessary to the future generation's ability to learn and understand the technology with which they are working.  Yes, kids have the Internet for information.  No, they don't necessarily need print encyclopedias anymore.  But how many kids understand that Wikipedia doesn't always present accurate information because anyone can edit it?  How many adults understand it for that matter?  Not many.  They need people who do understand that, and who can explain that to them.  Like librarians.

Does it sound like I'm fighting for my job?  Yes, because I am.  Librarians all over the country are in the middle of fighting for their jobs.  School districts are cutting them left and right because they are "non-essential teaching positions" or "non-teaching positions".  There are many things wrong with our education system, and this is a big one.  The kids are the ones who are suffering by these cuts.  They need their librarians to be there to teach them how to use technology to better themselves and others.  This includes being taught ethics and responsibility.  It means being taught that bullying on the Internet is the same as bullying in person, if not worse.  That the ideas that are presented to the public on the web are still someone's ideas that are protected and should not be stolen to use as your own.

Many school districts are saying that classroom teachers can take over that part of education.  To them, I say that's not fair.  It's not fair to add yet another responsibility to teachers who are overworked and underappreciated as it is.  It's not fair to expect them to be experts in yet another huge field that is constantly growing and changing.  I work on this full time, and it's hard enough for me to keep up with all of this.  I couldn't imagine having the ability to be an expert in digital media and technology (and all that goes with it), as well as an expert in every other area of education, as we ask our teachers to be.  They need someone who is an expert in media (again, librarians) to work with to present the opportunity for a full education to our students.

If we value our children and the opportunities for societal growth that they are, we need to take a serious look at how we handle our ever-changing technological landscape.  Giving a computer to every child is pointless if we don't provide the education on how to use it well.  The students on the "Digital Media" special were using technological tools to create amazing things...music, movies, games...all incredible tools for learning and incredible tools for communication and personal growth.

Parents and educators often worry about what our children are doing with technology.  How are they abusing it?  How is it hurting themselves and others?  We often forbid cell phones and iPods in schools.  What if we actually get involved with what they are already using?  What if we take the things in which they are already interested, like movies, music, and games, and turn them into educational opportunities?  What if we actually have conversations with our kids about all of this?  How would that change the American educational picture?  How would it affect our students' ability to be competitive with students from other countries?

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that we need to completely abandon all of the work we have been doing thus far, or that we need to replace everything with technology.  I'm not saying that at all.  We just need to tweak it.  Integrate what we are already doing with what we COULD be doing.  One teacher in "Digital Media" used a great example...without art, kids wouldn't know colors and shapes.  Without colors and shapes, they can't expect to become the graphic designers they want to be.  Integration.  (Now, art teachers are being cut all over as well...but that's another topic.)

It's important to understand that this is a new direction, and we are going to have to be flexible in our learning as well.  We are not going to have all of the answers.  Problems are going to arise that we don't anticipate.  We're going to have to solve them as we go, and not let those issues slow us down.  It's going to take work to change some of what we've been doing, but we don't have to change everything at once.  It's very easy to get overwhelmed by all of this, but pretending it doesn't exist or that we don't have to use it is not going to help anyone.  Baby steps are okay.

At the end of the day, we have to ask ourselves a few questions.  As one of the principals in "Digital Media" stated, "What do we want our schools to be?  What do we dream for our schools and for our children?  What are the most important things that schools can teach kids?  And wouldn't it be wonderful to have a national conversation around that?  And at least start to figure that out.  And then, from there, start the process of maybe trying to reinvent what education looks like in this country."

I'm a Barbie Girl...

Barbie.  It's amazing how that one name can conjure up feelings of love and hate.  Devotion and loathing.  Joy and misery.  All of these are addressed in Tonya Lee Stone's "The Good, The Bad, and The Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us".

When I saw this book on several "Best of 2010" book lists, I knew I had to read it.  I was a Barbie fan as a child.  I have memories of spending hours locked in my room with Barbie and her Dream House.  I used to spend most of the time just setting up the house...furniture in the right places, all of the miniature food set up properly in the refrigerator.  Then Barbie would begin her day.  She would wake up, take her bath, pick out her clothes, eat her breakfast, and hop in her convertible.  But then she never really went anywhere.  I was usually so tired by the time I did all that to make Barbie really work or do any other activities.  But it didn't matter.  That was all that I needed Barbie to do to fulfill my playtime with her.

There are several people mentioned in this book that have similar happy memories of Barbie, and others who hate her with a passion for various reasons.  The book details how Barbie began, starting with the story of Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, who founded Mattel with her husband, Elliot, and a friend.  From the start, Barbie was controversial.  The fact that she had breasts was seen as wrong to many adults, though most girls instantly loved her.  Barbie was marketed as a "teenaged fashion model" with all of the most fashionable clothes to show off her glamour.  But that was only the beginning.

Stone does a good job of detailing the changes in Barbie's life over the last 50 years, as well as presenting the variety of opinions about her.  There are those who hate Barbie and don't want children exposed to her perfectly proportioned, unachievable form for fear of creating complexes and eating disorders.  Interestingly, most of those people are adults.  While there are some children who have no interest in Barbie because of her perfection, most girls don't really pay attention to that.  I know that I never did.  I never felt like I had to look like Barbie.  I just loved her fabulous clothes.  Mattel changed her shape within the last 10 years to make her "more realistic", yet I feel like there is more of a problem now.  Before, her shape was unattainable...ridiculous in it's proportions.  Now, she still looks ridiculously thin, but in a way that people could actually look.  It almost seems more dangerous now than it used to be.

But all in all, I felt in reading this book that people need to relax.  While Barbie is undeniably an American icon, it's because we have put her there.  In reality, she's a toy!  Love her or hate her, that's all she is.  Adults who are concerned with Barbie's influence on their children need to talk to their children about her.  Once again, the problem is not the item, it's the lack of communication between parents and children.  And, really, as the book states:

"...girls figure out who they want to be by trying things on for size, acting things out.  By seeing how it feels to put on makeup, being a girly girl, being a tomboy, pretending to be a flight attendant, a race car driver, an astronaut, a housewife.  Playing with Barbie lets them experiment with all things feminine.  They impose their will upon Barbie - not the other way around.  Girls are strong, and no plastic, eleven-and-a-half-inch doll could ever change that." (p. 107)

Barbie opens up new worlds to the girls who are interested in playing with her.  This book does a fairly good job of showing all of that, though sometimes the information seems bunched together and somewhat rushed.  There are more than enough opinions on the doll to present a balanced argument, and many of them come from emails sent to the author by children and teens.  The pictures throughout the book are in black-and-white, except for the color photo section in the middle of the book.  All in all, a worthy read for anyone interested in the history and controversy of Barbie.

Recommended for grades 6 and up.

(Photo from juniorlibraryguild.com)

Celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be...

That's the lesson learned by Brooke Alter in Lauren Weisberger's latest novel, Last Night at Chateau Marmont.

Brooke's days may not be perfect, but she enjoys the life she's built with her husband, Julian.  She loves working as a nutritionist for pregnant women and new mothers, and doesn't really mind the second job she's taken on to support her musician husband.  Working as a counselor to teenaged girls at an elite prep school helps her feel even more fulfilled.  Brooke works hard to help her talented husband succeed, but when he actually accomplishes his dream and hits the big time, Brooke finds that it comes with much more than she bargains for.

Julian is suddenly hiring new agents and publicists, flying around the country for weeks on end, and showing up in all of Brooke's favorite tabloid magazines.  As she holds down the fort at home and tries to balance the career she loves with the new demands of her husband's career, Brooke feels pulled in a hundred directions.  She's suddenly forced to make difficult decisions about her life and priorities.  These decisions become even harder to make when she finds out that Julian has made an error of judgement that has landed in the pages of the most widely-read magazine in the country.

This is Weisberger's fourth novel, following The Devil Wears Prada, Everyone Worth Knowing, and Chasing Harry Winston.  Having read the former, I felt the latter was pretty on par with the others.  Weisberger is not my favorite chick lit author, yet I always find myself wanting to read her books.  The stories she tells aren't ground-breaking, but there is a familiarity with them that most other authors don't have.  I always get the feeling that she has been around the celebrity scene enough to tell authentic stories.  After all, that's what made her famous.  The Devil Wears Prada was supposedly based on her experience working for one of the major fashion magazine's Editors-in-Chief (rumor was Anna Wintour at Vogue).  This novel is no different.  There are many references to real people, and the processes that Julian experiences in his rise to the top seem very realistic.

What I liked most about this novel, and Weisberger's others, is that her main character is real...the glue that holds our faith in humanity together.  They always figure out how to come back to reality and get what they truly wanted, which usually has nothing to do with the glam lives in which they ended up.  Brooke is no different.  She struggles through the changes in her life, marriage, and husband.  She fights to be able to keep the career she's always wanted.  And in the end, she makes the hard decisions.  While Julian's fame goes to his head, it's not the same for Brooke.  I like how Weisberger showed how instant celebrity affects the "normal civilian".  Privacy?  Gone.  Family?  Hassled.  Friends?  Only the true ones stick around and are worth keeping.  I think a lot of people fantasize about the perks that come with celebrity status but never really consider everything else that comes with the package deal.

One of the funniest things to me about the story was Brooke and Julian's dog.  His name was Walter Alter.  Something about that struck me as humorous and real.  I found that the dog actually made me feel more connected to Brooke, probably because his name was so cute and cheesy...something that I would be likely to choose.  I felt like I could understand her better as a character because I could relate to her in that way.  Weird, I know.

I recommend this book for adults who want a breezy read with emotion.  Great for a vacation, and of course, a great beach read! :)

(Photo from bookfinds.com)