33 Things Every Girl Should Know

Bolden, Tonya. 1998. 33 things every girl should know: stories, songs, poems, and smart talk by 33 extraordinary women. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0517709996

Plot Summary

A collection of stories, cartoons, poems, letters, and interviews from 33 different women, each strong and successful in her own way, written to give encouragement to young girls on the threshold of womanhood. These stories encourage girls to dream big and work hard to achieve their goals.

Critical Analysis

Each entry in this collection varies in style and tone. Some are autobiographical, some directly challenge the societal expectations of young women, all are written with the hope of empowering young women to achieve their dreams and follow their hearts.

The topics covered vary greatly and include dealing with one's sexual orientation, overcoming and triumphing despite physical handicaps, combating the pervasive "thin is beautiful" culture, dealing with insensitive people, and just finding oneself. Some selections are heavy-handed and preachy, but others speak with a true voice easily heard by adolescents. (School Library Journal)

The variety of topics, voices, and writing styles mean the book may not appeal to teens as a whole, but everyone should be able to find a particular story or two that will resonate. “Even a cursory reading of this book will provoke discussions between friends, students and teachers, and parents and children.” (Book Report) Brief biographical sketches of the contributors at the end of the book provide more information about the women.

Review Citations

Scalpello, Melanie, and Shelley Glantz. 1998. "Reviews: Non-fiction." Book Report 17, no. 3: 82.

Steinberg, Renee. 1998. "Grades 5 & up: Nonfiction." School Library Journal 44, no. 5: 150.

Bodies From the Ice

Deem, James M. 2008. Bodies from the ice: melting glaciers and the recovery of the past. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 9780618800452

Summary

Bodies From the Ice is an informative book about the discovery, identification, and history of frozen mummified bodies found near the edges of receding glaciers around the world. Learn about a 5,300-year-old iceman found near the Italian-Austrian border, the mummified remains of sacrificed Incan children, and a long-lost mountain explorer who may have been the first person to climb Mount Everest. 

Critical Analysis

“A book that comfortably sits at the intersection of several disciplines: anthropology, archaeology, geography, glaciology, and history.” (Horn Book) This well researched book provides a fascinating look at an intriguing subject. The gruesome and vivid photographs show the remarkable preservation of the bodies and artifacts. Historical paintings provide context for the history of glacial explorations. “Heavily illustrated with historical memorabilia as well as photos of bodies, scenery, artifacts, and rather simplistic maps, this offers a lot to look at and learn about.” (Booklist)  

Covering many different discoveries of bodies the book tends to jump around from place to place and time to time; however, the information provided does build an understanding of the process of frozen mummification and how these bodies resurface after hundreds or thousands of years. Throughout the book the effects of global warming, and the fast-paced recession of the world’s glaciers, are highlighted to bring attention to this issue. Suggested websites and glaciers to visit provide opportunity for further research. Also includes a bibliography, and an index.

Review Citations

Cooper, Ilene. 2008. "Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past." Booklist 105, no. 7: 61. 

Hunt, Jonathan. 2009. "Bodies from the Ice: Melting Glaciers and the Recovery of the Past." Horn Book Magazine 85, no. 1: 111.

The Book Thief

Zusak, Markus. 2006. The book thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0375831002

Plot Summary

Death narrates this tale of a young German girl growing up during World War II. Ten-year-old Liesel Meminger first catches Death’s attention when he arrives to take the soul of her little brother and Death witnesses her first book theft. Liesel is on her way to Molching, near Munich, where she will be living with a foster family. Hans Hubermann is a gentle man with eyes “made of kindness, and silver” who teaches Liesel to read and comforts her when she has nightmares. Rosa Hubermann is an acerbic woman with a sharp tongue that hides a generous heart. As Liesel learns to read, she discovers the power of words, and the beauty of books. Liesel begins to steal books, first from a Nazi book burning, and later from the Mayor’s wife. Liesel uses these books to comfort and console her neighbors and friends during air raids, and to comfort the Jewish man hidden in the Hubermann basement.

Critical Analysis

 

The Book Thief is a unique work of Historical Fiction that shows a side of WWII and the Holocaust that is seldom portrayed. Set in a poor neighborhood of a small German town the story is populated by a variety of characters ranging from the fervent Nazi shopkeeper to Hans Hubermann who can’t help but offer kindness to a suffering human being, even when it puts him and his family in danger. The details of the war, the battles won and lost, are kept in the background of the story, but the effects of the war are shown through the increased sense of urgency in outwardly conforming to the Nazi ideal, food shortages, increased air raids, and the lost lives of young soldiers. The tragic end of the story is heartrending because the characters are so easy to identify with, even though they are the “enemy”.

This big, expansive novel is a leisurely working out of fate, of seemingly chance encounters and events that ultimately touch, like dominoes as they collide. The writing is elegant, philosophical and moving. Even at its length, it's a work to read slowly and savor. Beautiful and important. (Kirkus Reviews)

What really sets The Book Thief apart from other books is the author’s use of figurative language. Zusak mixes up sensory words to create new visions. “The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.” The Book Thief is not a quick or easy read, but the beauty of the words makes it worthwhile. German words and phrases are used and defined throughout the story, providing both informative and amusing details (Arschloch = asshole).

Zusak not only creates a mesmerizing and original story but also writes with poetic syntax, causing readers to deliberate over phrases and lines, even as the action impels them forward. (School Library Journal)

Review Citation

2006. "THE BOOK THIEF." Kirkus Reviews 74, no. 2: 91.

Goldsmith, Francisca. 2006. "The Book Thief." School Library Journal 52, no. 3: 234.

The Hunger Games

Collins, Suzanne. 2008. The hunger games. Read by Carolyn McCormick. New York: Scholastic Audio Books. ISBN 9780545091022

Plot Summary

In Panem, a country in what remains of North America in the distant future, the Capitol is a place of luxury and indulgence, with a taste for blood sports. Twelve outlying districts supply the Capitol with goods and materials, while the district residents starve. In retribution for a past rebellion, each year a boy and a girl, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, from each district are chosen to participate in the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games are a nationally broadcast fight to the death, and only one teen will survive. 

Since her father died, sixteen year-old Katniss Everdeen has been sneaking outside the fence that surrounds her district in order to hunt and support her family. When Katniss’ little sister is called as a contestant, Katniss volunteers to take her place. Katniss’s hunting skills make her the first viable contestant from District 12 in decades. In the Capitol, Katniss and Peeta, the boy chosen from District 12, are billed as star-crossed lovers after Peeta admits his infatuation in an interview. In the arena, Katniss struggles with the certain knowledge that Peeta, like every other contestant, will try to kill her in order to survive. After all, the star-crossed love is just an act to attract sponsors and keep the audience interested, right?

Critical Analysis

“The games are so brutal and so real that it is impossible to stop reading until you know who wins the Hunger Games.” (Library Media Connection)

In this dystopian story, Katniss is an emotionally damaged hero fighting against the machinations of the extraordinarily cruel Capitol rulers. The residents of the districts are kept at the brink of starvation, too concerned with basic survival to consider another rebellion. The citizens of the Capitol, in contrast, live in a world of luxury and seem to have no concept of the human cost of their annual sporting event. “I know I’ll never marry, never risk bringing a child into the world. Because if there’s one thing being a victor doesn’t guarantee, it’s your children’s safety. My kids’ names would go right into the reaping balls with everyone else’s.” The hopelessness of the situation in the districts is excruciating. Only the actions of a select few characters hint at the possibility that a rebellion could be simmering beneath the surface. Katniss survives the games, and manages to save Peeta too, but she is still in danger at the end of the book.

“Carolyn McCormick ably voices the action-packed sequences and Katniss's every fear and strength shines through, along with her doomed growing attraction to one of her fellow Tributes.” (School Library Journal)

Review Citations

Cox Clark, Ruth. 2008. "The Hunger Games." Library Media Connection 27, no. 3: 77.

Osborne, Charli. 2009. "The Hunger Games." School Library Journal 55, no. 4: 58.

Uglies

Westerfeld, Scott. 2006. Uglies. Read by Carine Montbertrand. New York: Recorded Books. ISBN 9781428113367

Plot Summary

Tally Youngblood lives in a city where everyone undergoes an operation at age sixteen to eliminate all of their blemishes and imperfections, to make themselves into the evolutionary ideal of beauty. Like most fifteen year-old uglies, Tally is eagerly awaiting her sixteenth birthday, the day she will be made pretty and move to New Pretty Town where there is a party every night. A couple of months before her birthday, after her older friends have already become pretty, Tally meets Shay and they quickly become close friends. Shay has the same birthday as Tally, but she is not eager to be made pretty. Shay likes herself, imperfections and all. 

“A couple of months and we’ll be stuck inside the river. Pretty and boring. … Doing what you’re supposed to do is always boring. I can’t imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.” 

A few days before their birthday, Shay tells Tally  that she is running away to a place called the Smoke, a secret camp where uglies remain ugly. Shay asks Tally to come with her, but Tally is appalled at the idea. Shay leaves Tally cryptic directions to the Smoke, just in case she changes her mind.

On her birthday, instead of receiving her operation, Tally is taken to Special Circumstances, a secret security force made up of cruel pretties. The leader of the cruel pretties tells Tally that she will not receive her operation; she will remain ugly forever, unless she follows Shay’s directions to the Smoke in order to activate a tracking device that will lead the Specials to the Smoke. Tally reluctantly agrees, but upon arrival at the Smoke, she is reluctant to betray her friend and finds herself drawn to the work and lifestyle of the Smokies. Tally begins to fall in love with David, and learns from his parents that the operation changes more than looks, it also changes a pretty’s brain. Tally decides to destroy the tracking device, unwittingly activating it and bringing the destruction of the Smoke. Tally and David are the only Smokies to escape, and they set out to rescue the captives from Special Circumstances.

Critical Analysis

 

Uglies begins as an apparent utopian society where no one has to worry about being discriminated against based on looks, where everyone is attractive and healthy. It certainly seems ideal to Tally. The first definite clue that something is rotten is Tally’s initial encounter with the specials, pretties designed to look cold, intimidating, and cruel. Eventually it is revealed that there is a sinister purpose behind the operation that every ugly covets. “Teens will sink their teeth into the provocative questions about invasive technology, image-obsessed society, and the ethical quandaries of a mole-turned-ally.” (Booklist)

Tally is a reluctant hero; she is happy on her path to prettiness and does not question it. However, once she is forced to become a mole, she discovers fulfillment that she was unaware she was lacking. Tally soon finds herself torn, unwilling to betray the Smokies and afraid to reveal her reasons for coming to the Smoke. When Tally accidentally brings about the destruction of the Smoke, and the capture of her friends and David’s parents, she vows to make it right by rescuing them. “Tally inflicts betrayal after betrayal, which dominates the theme for the midsection; by the end, the nature of this dystopia is front and center and Tally--trying to set things right--takes a stunning leap of faith.” (Kirkus) When Tally is too late to rescue Shay and David’s father, she decides that she must sacrifice herself and undergo the operation in order to help David’s mom test a cure for the brain damage.

Review Citation

2005. "UGLIES." Kirkus Reviews 73, no. 4: 237.

Mattson, Jennifer. 2005. "Uglies (Book)." Booklist 101, no. 14: 1287.

Tithe

Black, Holly. 2002. Tithe: a modern faerie tale. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689849249

Plot Summary

Sixteen year-old Kaye Fierch comes home to the Jersey shore after being on the road with her mother, a mostly unsuccessful singer, for six years. Kaye is nervous about how she will fit in with her old school friends who remember her as the weird girl who believes in faeries. Kaye is also eager to see her faerie friends Gristle, Spike, and Lutie-loo again. After leaving a party where she unwittingly enchants her best friend’s boyfriend, Kaye discovers a wounded faerie knight in the woods. Kaye helps the knight, Roiben, and gains a terrible power over him. Soon after, Kaye is drawn further into the faerie world than she could have ever imagined. Kaye is to be the tithe, a sacrifice that will bind the faeries of land to the Unseelie court. A pawn in a game of power between two faerie queens, Kaye’s only hope is to bind Roiben to her with love, not compulsion.

Critical Analysis

“A labyrinthine plot with Goth sensibility makes this a luscious treat for fans of urban fantasy and romantic horror.” (Kirkus Reviews)

 “Were I you, I would stay clear of the Folk in the future. We are a capricious people, with little regard for mortals” warns the faerie knight. Drawing upon traditional faerie lore, Tithe is a dark fantasy with a flawed heroine who is not what she appears to be. When Kaye discovers that she is in fact a pixie changeling, she is relieved to have an explanation for all of the things that have marked her as different and weird throughout her life. As Kaye comes to understand the rules and the cruel inhuman nature of the faerie world, she struggles with the conflict between her mischievous nature and the humanity that she has acquired.

“It’s the riveting descriptions of the faerie world—a bacchanalian hell described in remarkable detail—that will most capture readers. Dark, edgy, beautifully written, and compulsively readable.” (Booklist)

Review Citations

Engberg, Gillian. 2003. "Tithe (Book)." Booklist 99, no. 12: 1064.

2002. "TITHE (Book)." Kirkus Reviews 70, no. 17: 1303.