Module 8 - Uglies

Westerfeld, S. (2005). Uglies. New York: Scholastic.


Summary
Set in the future where the world is different than today, children are brought up as Uglies until the age of 16 when they undergo an operation that makes them a Pretty.  This operation changes each individual into a beautiful being with bright eyes, full lips and the perfect skin.  Tally Youngblood anxiously awaits her 16th birthday in order to join her best friend, Perris, in the city of Prettyville.  During her wait Tally meets Shay, another ugly who will turn 16 the same day as Tally.  Tally and Shay build a great friendship learning to hover board and playing tricks on other Uglies. Days before their 16th birthday Shay tells Tally of her plan to leave the city and not have the operation.  Shay escapes to the join the Smokies, a rebellion group that lives beyond the ruins of the Rusties (who the reader concludes is the people of today).  Shay leaves Tally with a poem of clues telling Tally how to reach Shay if she changes her mind and wants to leave before her operation.  On her 16th birthday Tally eagerly awaits her surgery but is taken to the Specials and told she will not receive the surgery until she leads the Specials to the Smokies - a group they have been attempting to find for years.  After days of turmoil, Tally decides to help the Specials so she can become a Pretty and join Perris.  Tally is prepared for  many days of traveling and sets off to follow the poem Shay left her.  Tally finds the Smokies and joins them, but is it a rebellion group that keeps people there against their will, as the Specials said or do the Smokies have reason to believe everyone is beautiful without surgery?  Tally begins to see that life away from the city is hard work, but not what the Specials made it out to be. Tally decides to remain with the Smokies and destroy the communication device the Specials provided her but her plan back fires and causes the Smokie's village to be ambushed by the Specials.  


My Impressions

The book started off slow, setting the stage for the futuristic way of life in Uglyville and Prettyville.  Establishing characters and setting was important or the rest of the book would never make sense.  However, the process of establishing took awhile and almost caused me to not continue reading.  Once the author has provided a firm setting the book picks up and the reader can put themselves in Tally's shoes and the world she lives in.  I enjoyed the book tremendously and look forward to reading the other two in the series.  These types of books makes you wonder if this is where the world could end up - so albeit fantasy, one could see materialism taking shape in the manner Westerfeld has written.

Review
Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots-or remain forever "ugly." Tally's adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels' cover. Ethical concerns will provide a good source of discussion as honesty, justice, and free will are all oppressed in this well-conceived dystopia. Characterization, which flirts so openly with the importance of teen self-concept, is strong, and although lengthy, the novel is highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic technologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies. Fortunately, the cliff-hanger ending promises a sequel.


Hunter, S.W. (2005). [Review of the book Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld]. School Library Journal, 51,3, 221.


Suggested Library Use
Because dystopian societies are a popular theme  amongst young adult books, this book could be used in a display for dystopian societies - including Hunger Games, City of Ember, The Giver, to name a few.  However, I would create this display to be more than "just a display."  I would create commercials for each book, or have students who have read them create the commercials, to have on a continual loop playing with the display of books.  

Module 7 - Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record

Barrows, A. (2007). Ivy and Bean break the fossil record. San Fransico: Chronicle Books.


Summary
Their 2^nd grade teacher introduces Ivy, Bean and their classmates to “The Amazing Book of World Records.”  The class including Ivy and Bean gets crazed to break a record.  Ivy and Bean try different ways to break different records, including breaking glass, placing spoons on their faces and straws in their mouths.  The girls are on a quest to break a record when they start digging in the backyard.  One after another the girls dig up bones, which they are sure, are dinosaur bones.  They believe they will be the youngest paleontologists in the world and can't wait to show their friends.




My Impression

This is a cute book for young elementary school students.  Ivy and Bean are as innocent as they come and strong-willed enough to try to beat any record they can.  The characters are very believable and children of similar age will be able to identify with them and their goals, their relationships, and their wanting to show off to their classmates.

Review

When Bean’s teacher introduces The Amazing Book of World Records, everyone in the second grade vows to set new records. Bean tried stuffing her mouth full of straws, speed washing dishes, and screaming (with predictably disastrous results); finally, Ivy involves her friend in digging for dinosaur bones so they can become the world’s youngest paleontologists. Barrows’ dynamic duo is as appealing here as in the first two books, and emergent readers will identify with their outrageous antics. Also intriguing are Bean’s sister, Nancy (who never misses an opportunity to put down her sibiling), and her ever-supportive dad, whose banana bread fixes almost any problem.  

Weisman, K. (2007, July 1). [Review of Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record]. Booklist, 75(11), 58.

Suggested Library Use
This would be a book to use to create a book talk for 1st and 2nd graders who are just beginning to get into chapter books.  There are more in the series which would help build the confidence of these new chpater book readers.

Module 7 - Anything But Typical

Baskin, N.R. (2009). Anything but typical. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.


Summary
Sixth grader Jason, who was diagnosed with autism in third grade narrates the story of his life and allows the reader into his thoughts and feelings about his family, school and a possible girlfriend.  


My Impression
I loved this book - which I think I write more often than not when posting each week.  Although the mind of any person, autistic or not, is a mystery Baskin has taken herself into the mind of a 12-year old autistic boy and allows us to see life from his perspective.  It was eye opening to see how Jason was treated at school and with his peers.  If children don't have experiences with different people how can they teachers don't seek to understand each student can we truly understand what is best for them? This book opened my eyes to autistic students in my school and how I might interact with them, truly accepting them for who they are.


Review

Baskin sets herself a difficult challenge by making her narrator both an aspiring writer and autistic, seemingly more severely so than, for instance, Ted in Siobhan Dowd’s London Eye Mystery. Sixth-grader Jason is being mainstreamed this year (forgoing his one-on-one classroom aide), and sometimes the noises, smells, and interpersonal demands overwhelm him. One of his greatest comforts is the website Storyboard, where he posts a story about a dwarf considering a treatment that would make him normal-sized. When Jason’s story attracts positive online comments from a girl, he begins to feel that he has a friend—even a girlfriend—but is panic-stricken when he learns they are both planning to attend the Storyboard conference. He’s also distressed that his mother, not his father, ends up accompanying him to the conference, but both Jason and his “neurotypical” mom come to realize that in some ways he is more competent than she is. Baskin writes with striking honesty, especially about Jason’s relationship with his parents, and incorporates many details about Jason’s perceptions of and reactions to people that might help readers better understand their autistic peers. The book’s greater strength, though, is communicating to readers how some of the same things that bother Jason might also bother them— whether it is bright lights, noisy rooms, or foods that touch—and estab- lishing common ground.

Smith-D'Arezzo, W. (2009, March). [Review of the book Anything But Typical]. School Library Journal, 55(3), 141. 

Suggestion for Library Use
Because this book is for an older audience, a book commercial sharing about this book for students to view on the school website to interests them in checking the book out.