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The Honor List
For
the past twenty years, Ken Donelson and I have gathered all the “best
book” lists we could find and have put together what we call our “Honor
List.” We include the ten to twelve books that have appeared on the
most lists and won the most prizes. We use the Honor List in the introductory
chapter to our textbook Literature for Today’s Young Adults,
and also with our own students to help focus their reading on books
that are likely to last.
For
the last several years, our Honor List has also been printed each year
in the English Journal. It will appear this year in Chris Crowe’s
Young Adult Literature column in the November 2001 issue. In the meantime,
here are our 1999 and 2000 winners accompanied by a few sentences excerpted
from the fuller reviews. Our new colleague at ASU, Jim Blasingame, helped
us write the reviews for the 2000 books..
1999
Honor List
Anna
of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett. Delacorte Press, 1999. 209 pp. $14.95.
Grades 7 and up. ISBN 0-385-32626-2.
Barrett is a scholar whose writing of
Anna of Byzantium was supported by a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities. She dedicates her novel to the “forgotten
women writers” of the Middle Ages, who like Anna Comnena were actually
as literate as were the men in comparable social positions. Princess
Anna is the true-life author of The Alexiad, an 11-volume story
of her father’s reign over the Byzantine Empire centered in Constantinople
(now Istanbul, Turkey) from 1083 to 1118. Barrett explains in an author’s
note that she had to “make-up” many of the details of Anna’s personal
life. Readers probably won’t mind simply because they will be so grateful
for a story that shows readers how much they have in common with a girl
who lived nearly a thousand years ago.
Frenchtown
Summer by Robert Cormier. Delacorte, 1999. 115 pp. $16.95, Grades
7-up. ISBN 0-385-32704-8.
Cormier does not claim that this book
of 30 poems is autobiographical. In fact, the protagonist is named
Eugene, but anyone acquainted with Cormier will assume that he is telling
his own experience. He has undoubtedly lived each of the emotions and
probably most of the actual experiences. Readers who know Cormier’s
other books will also be more in tune with the sense of mystery and
forboding that comes into the poems. He tells about a boy who got Saint
Vitus’ dance and was forever after shunned, about a retarded man who
one day “simply wasn’t there anymore,” about an uncle who committed
suicide, and about his own dark suspicions that are too awful to even
be voiced.
Hard
Love by Ellen Wittlinger. Simon & Schuster, 1999. 224 pp. $16.95.
Grades 8-up, ISBN 0-689-82134-4.
Zines (homemade magazines)
are at the heart of Wittlinger’s off-beat romance, and the pages are
enlivened by excerpts from Bananafish, the zine put out by shy
16-year-old John, and Escape Velocity, the zine put out by far-from-shy
Marisol, who describes herself as “Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Cambridge,
Massachusetts, rich spoiled lesbian private-school gifted-and-talented
writer virgin looking for love.
Monster
by Walter Dean Myers. HarperCollins, 1999. 281 pp. $15.89. Grades
7-up. ISBN 0-06-02877-8.
Myer’s book has two distinctive qualities.
One is its unusual format. There are no pages of plain print; instead,
the story is told through a typed script for a movie written by Steve
Harmon, a young African American on trial as an accused accessory to
murder. The second distinctive aspect is the strong moral message.
Steve was arrested essentially for “doing nothing,” and as he waits
for the trial he has lots of time to ponder whether this makes him a
“monster,” as claimed by the prosecution.
Never
Trust a Dead Man by Vivian Vande Velde. Harcourt, Brace, 1999.
194 pp. $17.00. Grades 7-10. ISBN 0-15-201899-9.
In this strange medieval tale, there’s
lots of humor mixed with the supernatural, mixed with horror, mixed
with a bit of thwarted love. Seventeen-year-old Selwyn loves Anora,
who prefers the richer Farold, and the two boys fight for her favors.
Then Farold is found dead, stabbed in the back with Selwyn’s knife,
and Selwyn is found guilty by public acclaim and sentenced to death.
But because their world is full of superstitions about what to do with
dead bodies and murderers, the populace decides to entomb Selwyn with
Farold’s decomposing body until Selwyn dies – or whatever….
Safe at Second
by Scott Johnson. Philomel, 1999. 224 pp. $17.99, Grades 7-10. ISBN
0-33923365-2.
Safe at Second is an unconventional
sports book, but despite what the dust jacket suggests, it is not really
so much about Todd Bannister as about his friend Paulie, who tells Todd’s
tragic story. Todd was the high school baseball pitcher, hurler
of no-hitters, strikeout king, a boy usually surrounded by pro scouts
and college coaches – an all-round nice guy who was the fitting subject
of a feature story in Sports Illustrated. Then a batter drives
a fast ball directly back at Todd and Todd loses one eye. While, of
course, this is a traumatic change for Todd, it is also a change for
Paulie, who never had a goal other than to be Todd’s friend and assistant.
The Smugglers
by Iain Lawrence. Delacorte, 1999. 181 pp. $15.95. Grades 7-10. ISBN
0-395-32663-7.
The Smugglers is fast
reading, in part because there’s constant danger and violence, in part
because strange things follow John. The last of the book is taken up
with a literally foggy sea on which a wondrously enjoyable battle is
fought between the smugglers and English revenue officials. Lawrence’s
prose has the same marvelous ring as Leon Garfield’s books, and the
chapters describing a wild coach ride in Garfield’s The Sound of
Coaches (1974) and in Lawrence’s The Smugglers are equally
effective and impressive. The Smugglers, along with Lawrence’s
1998 The Wreckers, sing of the sea and nautical adventures.
When Zachary
Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. Henry Holt, 1999.
231 pp. $16.95. Grades 7-10. ISBN 0-8050-6116-9.
When Holt was 13, she went to the Louisiana
State Fair and paid $2.00 to see “The Fattest Boy in the World.” This
wonderful initiation story has been percolating in her mind ever since.
It is the summer of 1971, and thirteen-year-old Toby and his friend
Cal live in Antler, Texas, where they are sure nothing of any consequence
ever happens. The whole town is in the midst of the summer doldrums,
but then 643-pound Zachary Beaver arrives and is left by his guardian
in a trailer parked in the Dairy Maid lot. By the end of the summer,
Toby has learned that Antler, Texas, is very much a part of the world.
And when Zachary’s guardian returns to take him to the next spot, Toby
realizes that whether Zachary Beaver ever returns, Antler and Toby and
Cal will be at the heart of Zachary’s being, just as he is a part of
them.
The
2000 Honor List
Thanks to our new colleague, Jim Blasingame, for helping
us write this year's reviews.
Kit's
Wilderness by David Almond. New York: Delacorte, 2000. 229 pp. $15.95.
Grades 7-up. ISBN 0-385-32665-3.
Almond's
new book is a marvelous story about death and art and aging and forgiving.
It begins at the end of the book with three young people emerging into
the shining valley and the snow as townspeople cheer and all is well.
Then the story begins. Kit Watson's family has recently moved back to
a once-prosperous mining town, Stoneygate. Kit's grandfather luxuriates
in a return to his youth, the best thing that has happened to him since
grandmother died. Kit is less pleased to be here. He wants to be friends,
but the locals have theri friends divided up. One boy his own age most
intrigues Kit--John Askew, dirty and from analcoholic family. Kit and
John instinctively know that they are doomed to play out some important
event. And that important event is what this original and surreal story
is about.
A
Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. New York: Dial Books, 2000. 130
pp. $16.95. Grades 7-up. ISBN 0-8037-2518-3.
Richard
Peck's 2000 Newbery Medal winner had a long way to go to equal its precursor,
A Long Way from Chicago, but Peck's second effort is even funnier
and maybe a little deeper. Once again, he is adept at portraying small-town
Illinois during the Great Depression and at developing the character
of an admirable but eccentric grandmother. While Mary Alice is a delightful
heroine, it is Grandma Dowdel who stands out as an unusual and memorable
character, especially when viewed in relations to other older women
portrayed in the pop culutre. Grandma Dowdel is resourceful, cunning,
fearless, self-reliant and independent. No one gets the best of her,
including the Daughters of the American Revolution, teenage boys who
try to turn over her privy on Halloween, or a horse-thieving bully who
tries to extort money from Mary Alice on her first day at the new school.
Hope
Was Here by Joan Bauer. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2000. 190
pp. $16.99. Grades 8-up. ISBN 0-399-23142-0.
Bauer
is a wonderfully funny writer, who has noticed a mismatch in how many
teenagers have jobs and how few authors have explored the world of teenage
work. She set out to make a start at redressing the balance with her
story of sixteen-year-old Hope and her Aunt Addie leaving New York City
for promised jobs in Wisconsin--Addie as a cook and Hope as a waitress.
They had just been cheated by Addie's partner in a diner and they are
equally bitter as they load the cardboard boxes filled with their lives
into Addie's old Buick with the U-Haul trailer chained to the back.
By the end of the book, Hope is eighteen and working her last day at
the Welcome Stairways diner before leaving for college. She has had
a world of experience in the two-plus years that she and Addie have
lived in the apartment above the diner and she still finds "in-the-weeds
[rush-hour] waitressing" a fantastic adrenaline pumper because
she never knows if she's going to be waiting "on a maniac or a
guy passing out twenties."
The
Amber Spyglass, The Golden Compass, and The Subtle Knife by
Phillip Pullman. New York: Knopf, 2000, 1996, 1997. Grades 7-up. ISBN
0-679-87926-9, 0-679-87924-2, 0-679-876925-0.
Series
books rarely can be treated separately and this is particularly true
with Pullmans' interwoven trilogy, which mixes fantasy and derring-do
adventure into the conflict between good and evil and into the dilemma
of learning how to determine which is which and why. Pullman's characters
breathe real life, notably Lyra and Will and Mrs. Coulter. Things impossible
to believe are easily accepted under Pullman's magic words. Polar bears
wear battle armor, witches exist, demons are everywhere, and Lyra has
a tool, looking vaguely like a compass, which answers all she needs
to know. The books are powerful and masterful and moving and frightening.
Even better, they are honest and real. We predict that they will be
with us for many years to come. A plus for English teachers is Pullman's
fondness for Milton and how he uses Milton so well.
The
Wanderer by Sharon Creech, illus. by David Diaz. New York: HarperCollins,
2000. 305 pp. $15.95. Grades 5-8. ISBN 0-06-027730-0.
Ever
since Sharon Creech won the Newbery award for Walk Two Moons, she
has continued to explore the archetypal journal. She brings the form
close to perfection in The Wanderer, which is the name of the
45-foot sailboat in which a contemporary "family" crosses
the Atlantic. The passengers, who double as the crew, are three adult
brothers and three teenagers. The teenagers are Brian, Cody, and Sophie.
It's mainly Sophie's story, even though once the trip gets going, the
chapters alternate between Sophie and Cody. Cody tells us things about
Sophie that she can't or won't tell. As adults know and young readers
are learning, even the best laid plans often go awry. But what lifts
The Wanderer above a simple adventure tale is the subtle way
that Creech develops the mystery of Sophie's past and the reason that
her reluctant parents viewed this voyage as one of those things that
Sophie "just had to do."
Stuck
in Neutral by Terry Trueman. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. 114
pp. Grades 7-up. ISBN 0-06-028519-2.
Fourteen-year-old
Shawn McDaniel thinks his father is planning to kill him, a suspicion
the reader gradually grows to share in Terry Trueman's successful first
novel. Strangely enough, Shawn's father seems to think this would be
a courageous act of charity. Piling irony upon irony, Stuck in Neutral
unfolds as a list of good news/bad news paradoxes. Born with cerebral
palsy so profound he cannot control even the smallest part of his body,
Dhawn has been incorrectly assessed as having a mental age of three
months. In truth he is cognitively gifted. According to the Author's
Note, Trueman's book asks questions he asks himself about his own son,
Sheehan, also the victim of a severe physical disability: "Is Sheehan
a secret genius, like Shawn in the story? Does he like potato chips
and rock and roll? Inside himself is he witty and funny and wise?"
Homeless
Bird by Gloria Whelan. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. 216 pp. Grades
6-9. ISBN 0-06-28454-4.
In
this winner of the National Book Award, Koly is a thirteen-year-old
girl in India whose family scrapes together a dowry so that she can
marry into a "good" family; however, it isn't a marriage at
all. The sixteen-year-old groom is dying of tuberculosis and his family
thinks up the marriage scheme to get money to take him on a pilgrimage
to bathe in the Ganges River in hopes that he will be healed. Instead
of recovering, the boy dies, and Koly is left a widow to be cared for
by the boy's father and his embittered mother. Koly finds a friend in
her former husband's sister, but then the sister marries and moves away.
Koly's father-in-law, an increasingly despondent and ineffective school
teacher,fortunately takes it upon himself to teach Koly to read. After
two years, he dies and Koly is left to the mercy of a hostile and selfish
mother-in-law who through trickery abandons Koly in a city where the
monks are known to give charity to widows. Readers cheer for Koly who
within a couple of years manages to "make it" without charity.
Many
Stones by Carolyn Coman. Ashville, NC: Front Street, 2000. 158 pp.
$15.95. Grades 7-up. ISBN 1-886910-55-3.
Many
Stones connects many stories, each one pressing down on Berry like
the stones she places on her chest each night, one at a time, to calm
her troubled mind. The main story follows Berry and her father as they
travel to South Africa to attend a memorial service for Berry's older
sister, Laura, who was killed at the Cape Town church school where she
worked to right some of the wrongs of apartheid. Berry thinks that her
sister was everything she isn't: brilliant, successful, socially adept,
and politically active. Berry's father thinks the trip will help Berry
cope with the tragedy, but initially it only stirs up bad memories of
her parents' divorce, her failed relationship with her father, her sister's
death, and the downward spiral of her life. But as Berry moves closer
to the memorial service where she is to present a check for funds raised
in memory of Laura, Berry does take her first steps on the path to healing.
The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer by Gary Paulsen.
New York: Delacorte, 2000. 158 pp. $15.95. Grades 7-up. ISBN 0-385-32647-5.
Paulsen
says in his "Author's Note" that this autobiographical story
is "as real as I can write it, and as real as I can remember it
happening." The story begins with a sixteen-year-old boy who is
so disgusted with his drunken parents that he lights out for the beet
fields of North Dakota, where he learns fast enough that he can't keep
up with the Mexican migrants as they go up and down the fields weeding
out excess beets. He gets a chance to drive a tractor, but is jailed
by a crooked cop. Later he joins a carnival and learns there are some
people who are genuinely kind, but that doesn't mean he's "home
free." A couple of scenes may trouble censors because of the way
they illustrate the incredibly large part that lust plays in the lives
of young men..
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