Straight Outta East Oakland by Harry Louis Williams II

Straight Outta East Oakland by Harry Louis Williams II

First off, this didn’t feel like the typical urban drama because the main character, Firstborn Walker, is a studious young man who just makes some really bad decisions.  He’s from East Oakland and has been accepted to a prestigious (fictitious) private college in Berkeley.  The only catch is he has to come up with 20% of his first year’s tuition in order to qualify to get the rest of his costs (tuition, books and dorm) paid for for his entire time there.  What makes this especially tricky is that he’s about to be evicted from his rented room and can’t find any type of job, no matter how hard he looks.  Out of desperation, what he finally decides to do is go along with his childhood friend Drama and sell marijuana until he can save up the money he needs to start school in the fall.  What are the odds that his plan will work out, or that this naive bookworm will even survive?

This book captured and kept my interest more than many urban dramas.  It felt authentic without glorifying the drugs and violence, while at the same time telling a suspenseful story.  Sometimes the writer does become a little preachy about the “black man’s plight in the hood,” but I think these are messages that especially need to be heard by readers of this particular genre.  I would recommend this to fans and urban drama and Bay Area urban teens and young adults.

We also own the sequel to this book, Straight Outta East Oakland 2, Trapped on the Track.

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

In this gripping novel in verse, Hopkins tells what happens to three suicidal teenagers who meet in a clinic for “troubled youth” in Nevada.  First there’s Conner, who seems to have the perfect life if you don’t look too closely.  He lives in a mansion in an exclusive part of town and is very popular at school. Along with this, however, he has parents with impossibly high expectations who are always comparing him to his “perfect” twin sister Cara.  Then we meet Tony, a street kid who’s been in the juvenile detention system since he was a young child, but readers won’t learn why until much later in the book.  We just find out that he’s gay and been a prostitute on and off just to survive.  Lastly is Vanessa, the beautiful girl with a secret so dark the only way she believes she can relieve her pain is by cutting herself.  These three patients slowly become friends as they find they have more and more in common with each other.  Sharing their pasts is excruciating, but carefully they reveal their darkest mysteries to each other, learning to trust and love in the process.

This book is full of bleak topics: sexual abuse, self-mutilation, drug abuse, parental neglect, mental illness and suicide. Like all of Hopkins’ books, the author has done her research, and presents her characters in a realistic, if depressing fashion.  I found this book engaging, yet sad.  It didn’t really matter that I read it after I read Perfect, as there was only one character in common.  I would highly recommend this to teen readers who like realistic fiction and fans of Hopkins’ other titles.

Click HERE to see the review of the companion novel Perfect.

 

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

At Oregrove High, nobody messes with the football team!  When the gymnastics team wants to use the weight room and humiliates the football players in a strength contest, a war of pranks starts between the two teams that escalates until one of the youngest gymnasts is raped by three steroid-fueled football players.  The horrendous act is witnessed by two boys: Danny, a gymnast stuck behind some mats in the back of the storage room and Kurt, a fullback transfer student who beats up the three sick athletes, but has his own history with abuse.  The book is narrated in alternating chapters by these two characters, who could be more different, but eventually become friends.  The suspense of who to tell about the rape or what to do about it kept me on the edge of my seat until the end of the story.

I think this was a great book and recommend it to all mature high school readers. It is dark and realistic, touching on the current hot topic of bullying in a very realistic way.  It gets quite graphic and also has strong language, but both fit perfectly within the context of the story.  I give it 5 stars out of five!!!

Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman

Hold Love Strong by Matthew Aaron Goodman

Born to a 13-year-old mother in an impoverished Brooklyn project, Abraham Singleton starts off life with at least two strikes against him.  The advantage that Abraham has is is strong grandmother who refuses to lose hope and his devoted extended family – uncle, aunt, cousins–that all live together in their cramped apartment.  Because it’s told in the first person narration, the readers “become” Abraham from his birth until the end of the book when he is about eighteen.  We feel like we live his life with him, from the joy of his first love through the sorrows of his mother’s crack addiction.  The readers see Abraham’s life through his eyes, becoming immersed in his triumphs as well as his disappointments.

I was absorbed in this book from the first chapter and finished it in one weekend.  Goodman’s writing is compelling, and I couldn’t wait to see what would happen to Abraham and his family next.  I highly recommend to to all readers.  Fans of urban drama will be especially engaged as this book has all the usual elements they crave, but in a much more realistic story.

Here is a video you can watch from home of an interview with the writer where he discusses his inspiration for writing the book.

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

Fallout by Ellen Hopkins

This third and final novel in Hopkin’s Crank series brings  the meth-addicted Kristina’s story full circle.  It tells the story of her three eldest children as teenagers: Hunter, Summer and Autumn.  Although they all live separate lives, even being raised in different families, these young adults have all been impacted by their mother’s love affair with the Monster (methamphetamine) and the life path it has led her down.  They are all predisposed to addiction, and deal with anger, trust and self-esteem issues with a variety of levels of success.

From Hunter, age 19 and a college freshman at University of Nevada, Reno:

“I’VE GOT A LITTLE PROBLEM

And I’m not really sure

how to fix it.  Not really sure

I need to.  Not really sure I could.

Life is pretty good.  But once

in awhile, uninvited and

uninitiated, anger invades me.

It starts, a tiny gnaw

at te back of my brain.  Like

a  migraine, except without pain.

They say headaches

blossom, but this isn’t so

much a blooming as a bleeding.

Irritation bleeds into

rage, seethes into fury.

An ulcer, emptying hatred

inside me.  And I don’t

know why.  Life is pretty good.

So, what the hell?”

This was a great story, although very sad at times.  Kristina’s three children that are featured have so many obvious and unexpected issues related to their absent mom and various dads.  The two youngest that she was actually raising herself were no better off as she had basically no parenting skills and was more concerned with herself than her kids.  This book made me realize how so much that parents do affects their children in ways that can never be anticipated.  For me, it brought the story back to where it started, when Kristina was a teen having to make hard decisions about drugs, relationships and family.  Now her own children are having to make these same types of choices.

I would recommend this book to fans of Hopkins, fans of realistic fiction, and readers who like stories told in free verse.

Here’s a pretty good book trailer you can see from home:

Smack by Melvin Burgess

Smack by Melvin Burgess

Fourteen-year-old British runaways become heroin addicts in this gripping story.  No one would be surprised to see Tar runs away from his abusive, alcoholic parents, even though he had no idea where to go or how he would take care of himself.  But when Gemma decides to flee from her overly strict parents to join him, it changes everything.  Through a helpful tobacco storeowner, they find an empty building and decide to join some others in “squatting” there.  After they meet the carefree older teenagers Lily and her boyfriend Rob, life becomes one non-stop party, free of responsibilities, full of sex  and drugs and partying.  Slowly, the couple’s occasional heroin use turns into a full blown addiction, pulling them in directions they never imagined possible.

What most readers love about this “impossible to put down” book is that is doesn’t lecture them about the dangers of drug abuse.  It simply grabs you from the first page and plunges you first-hand into a lifestyle you probably wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

I would recommend this to all types of readers, especially those who like gritty, realistic stories about teens living on the dangerous edge of society.

Ellen Hopkins Event!!!!

One of Berkeley High’s favorite authors has her latest book coming out this month.  We can even see her, hear her read and chat at one of our local indie bookstores!

Thursday, September 16, 2010 – 7:00pm

A Great Good Place for Books

6120 LaSalle Avenue

Oakland, California 94611

A Great Good Place for Books proudly welcomes Ellen Hopkins as she reads from her new book FALL OUT,  Thursday September 16th at 7:00 pm.  This is the third and final book in the Crank series.  Here’s a description from Goodreads.com:

Hunter, Autumn, and Summer—three of Kristina Snow’s five children—live in different homes, with different guardians and different last names. They share only a predisposition for addiction and a host of troubled feelings toward the mother who barely knows them, a mother who has been riding with the monster, crank, for twenty years.

Hunter is nineteen, angry, getting by in college with a job at a radio station, a girlfriend he loves in the only way he knows how, and the occasional party. He’s struggling to understand why his mother left him, when he unexpectedly meets his rapist father, and things get even more complicated. Autumn lives with her single aunt and alcoholic grandfather. When her aunt gets married, and the only family she’s ever known crumbles, Autumn’s compulsive habits lead her to drink. And the consequences of her decisions suggest that there’s more of Kristina in her than she’d like to believe. Summer doesn’t know about Hunter, Autumn, or their two youngest brothers, Donald and David. To her, family is only abuse at the hands of her father’s girlfriends and a slew of foster parents. Doubt and loneliness overwhelm her, and she, too, teeters on the edge of her mother’s notorious legacy. As each searches for real love and true family, they find themselves pulled toward the one person who links them together—Kristina, Bree, mother, addict. But it is in each other, and in themselves, that they find the trust, the courage, the hope to break the cycle.

Told in three voices and punctuated by news articles chronicling the family’s story, FALLOUT is the stunning conclusion to the trilogy begun by CRANK and GLASS, and a testament to the harsh reality that addiction is never just one person’s problem.

I can’t wait to read this book as I absolutely loved Crank and Glass!  I would recommend this to readers who like realistic fiction and books told in verse.

Love You, Hate You, Miss You

Love You Hate You Miss You by Elizabeth Scott

This short book is the emotional story of how Amy copes with her best friend Julia’s  dying in a car crash.  Did I mention that Amy was in the car with her? Or that Amy was the one who encouraged her drugged friend to leave the party and drive home?  The story is told mostly through Amy’s journal entries, all actually letters to Julia telling her about her life now that she feels completely isolated and alone.  Although Amy has stopped her binge drinking, she misses the numbness is gave her when she feels too tall, or too awkward, or too stupid.  And now her parents, who used to be so “in love” with each other that they virtually ignored her,  are trying to actually act interested in what Amy does, and how she’s doing.  Give me a break, she thinks silently.

This is one of the few books I’ve given 5/5 stars to lately.  What made it so special for me was that the emotions rang true, and the author didn’t try too hard to tie up the story into a pretty package at the end.  I highly recommend this book to all teens.

Flash Burnout

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan

Reading a first novel of a new writer is always exciting for me.  This one had special appeal because it is the winner of the 2010 William C. Morris Award for debut novel, from the Young Adult Library Services Association, beating out Beautiful Creatures, which I adored.  Totally different from the paranormal romance of BC, this novel tells the story of high school sophomore Blake.  What’s unusual about Blake is that he has two important girls in his life: his new girlfriend the beautiful Shannon and his best friend Marissa, who he knows really needs a good friend right now.  On one hand, Blake is busy trying to figure out how this boyfriend/girlfriend business works (“Houston, we have a problem!” he says to himself when he totally blows it).  On the other hand, he takes an amazing picture of a homeless woman downtown, and she turns out to be  his friend Marissa’s meth-addicted mom, who is evidently back in town.

While this book is your typical high school drama in many ways, it’s also somewhat unusual.  Blake’s parents play a crucial role in his and his older brother’s lives, always trying to stress that “Actions have consequences,” in addition to being warm and supportive.  In contrast, Marissa’s mom is basically out of her life, in and out of rehab while her grandma raises her. And something very unexpected happens between Blake and Marissa, which could change their relationship completely.  But I don’t want to give too much away…

I’d give this book a 4 Stars out of  5.  I can’t wait to see what Madigan writes next.  BTW, you can check out her website @ http://www.flashburnout.com/.

Concrete Candy

Concrete Candy by Apollo

This collection of six short stories depict life for young men on the streets of Oakland, or Oaktown as Apollo calls it.  Life is gritty, sometimes unfair,  and full of hard choices and racist adults.  The characters are realistic and their drama is captivating.  They speak the language of the streets, captured well by the author.  “School for kids, Ma,” Jamar tells his mother.  “I got ‘portant s**t to do.  MAN stuff.”  Sadly, Jamar’s MAN Stuff may end up getting him killed.

For me, the most amazing part of the book was that it was written by a thirteen-year-old Oakland boy.  His clear writing and mature insight into the urban lifestyle is far beyond his short life, and it would be interesting to see how his writing changes as he grows up. (The book was published in 1996, and I can’t find anything by him since then.)  He was mentored by the well-known Oakland writer Jess Mowry. (Mowry’s Babylon Boyz, Six out Seven & Way Past Cool are all part of our collection.)

This title was recommended to me by one of my favorite teacher and I agree with him:  it is classic urban drama.  We have three new copies and I’m sure they’ll be checked out continuously.

Once Was Lost

Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr

Fans of Zarr’s first book, Story of a Girl, will not be disappointed in this title, her third Young Adult novel.  Samara, called Sam, is the daughter of Pineview’s most popular pastor.  Unfortunately, Paster Charlie, as he’s known by everyone, seems to care more about his congregation than his family.  Between writing his Sunday sermon, preparing the church for Sunday services, resting up from Sunday services and ministering to his congregants, Sam figures he one one day available for his family–Tuesdays.  She wishes he would give her and her mother half the time and attention he gives the Pineview Community Church.

Probably at least partly due to her husband’s preoccupation with his “calling,” Sam’s mom  has been a secret drinker for years.  “The thing about  Mom’s drinking is that she’s done it her whole adult life and ninety-five percent of the time it was never a problem problem.  Then all of a sudden and not that long ago, it went to more like eighty-seven percent.  Soon after that, it dipped down to maybe sixty-two.”  She’s now in a “court suggested” rehabilitation facility after being arrested while driving drunk.  The family has basically fallen apart with Sam’s mom at the New Beginnings Recovery Center.  Now there are piles of her old notes and phone messages on the kitchen counter, unopened bills Charlie hasn’t even noticed, and no food in the refrigerator.  Even her best friend Vanessa can’t get Sam to return her phone calls.  And Sam’s tired of even her closest friends going to parties they “don’t mention” to her because she’s Pastor Charlie’s kid.  To top everything off, her dad hasn’t even officially told the congregation what’s going on with his wife, and people are starting to find out on their own.  If he could just be honest with everyone, Sam could stop feeling like she’s living a lie, like she has the perfect family and her mom is “just under the weather.”

Is it any surprise that Sam is also having a “crisis of faith”–she’s just not sure if God exists anymore even though she’s been grounded in her religion her whole life.  After one of the girls from the church youth group disappears in broad daylight, Sam finds her faith even weaker than before.  ”This feeling that’s been building, this doubt, since way before my mom’s accident, has gotten bigger than me.”

I would rate this book a 9 out of 10.  It is perfect for fans of Sara Zarr’s other books, Sarah Dessen fans, and anyone who wants a heartfelt family story with a satisfying ending.

The Glass Castle

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

It is my guess that every reader of this book will have a strong emotional reaction to it.  This award-winning book made me so angry and sad, that I almost abandoned it a number of times.  It is the true story of a childhood written by journalist Jeannette Walls.  She and her two sisters and brother were raised by unique parents who Walls portrays realistically, but at the same time sympathetically.  Her father was an eccentric, brilliant, and alcoholic man, who couldn’t hold down a job, but whose charisma was so strong his children and wife were always his defenders.   In contrast, Wall’s mother was an artistic, free-spirit  who viewed the responsibility of a family as an inconvenience she refused to allow to interrupt her life.  When the children were very young, the family lived a nomadic lifestyle, travelling through the Southwest, usually living in the poor section of town when they settled for brief periods of time.  Eventually, they were forced to moved to the small coal town Rex Walls has left as soon as he was grown, living in a ramshackle structure that could hardly be called a house.  The four children had no indoor plumbing, no food most of the time, and little clothing, despite the freezing winters.  Even though the kids lived through poverty, hunger, and constant jokes and bullying from the other students at school, Walls never judges her parents, telling her story in a straight-forward, non-judgmental manner.  In fact, it is clear that all the children continue to love their parents, in spite of the neglectful, even abusive in my opinion, way they were raised.

For me this book was so difficult because my family has always viewed children as treasures, to be cherished and given as many enriching and positive experiences as we can afford.  To see children so completely neglected was hard for me to read, and impossible for me to comprehend.

I recommend this title to students who want to read about how strong and forgiving the human spirit can be.  It is the perfect choice for readers who loved  A Child Called It or  White Oleander.

Here is a short video interview with Walls you can look at when you’re not at school.

Tweak

Tweak: Growing up on Methamphetamines by Nic Sheff

“I am so afraid.  I’m afraid to hope again,” says Nic during his fifth stint in rehab.  Nic is a methamphetamine junkie who started on his trail of addiction with his first drink at 11-years-old.  This 22-year-old has tried almost every drug you can name, and liked most of them.  Raised in LA and San Francisco, he always thought he would be able to quit when he was “ready” to, but his habitual relapses have made him nearly give up.  His divorced parents barely return his phone calls because they can’t trust him because he’s stolen so many times to support his habit, and they just can’t take being heart-broken again by the son they love.  The story is told through Nic’s eyes, and is sad, but ultimately hopeful.  Nic’s father wrote Beautiful Boy, about his son’s addiction from a dad’s point of view.  BHS owns a copy of each title!

WARNING:  This book has very graphic language and descriptions of drug use.  For me, this makes it extremely realistic, but some may find it offensive.

The Spectacular Now

The Spectacular Now by Jim Tharp

Sutter Keely is a high school senior who insists on living in the moment;  “embracing the weird.”  He says, “Let everyone else go marching off into their great shining futures if they want.  Me, I’ve always been more than content to tip my whiskey bottle and take a ride straight into the heart of the spectacular now.”  Sutter has been drinking regularly since the seventh grade, and is known as the class party guy.  His beautiful girlfriend, Cassidy, dumps him because he can’t even do the one thing she begged him to do in their latest heart-to-heart talk.  Frankly, he doesn’t even remember what it is she wanted…

I found myself charmed by Sutter one minute, and angry at him the next.  When he takes up with a socially inept girl named Aimee, I wanted to hurt him, since there seems no way out but hurt for her, especially after she starts drinking vodka and cranberry juice to keep up with him.

Over all, this was a good book.  I appreciated that the ending was realistic, although not the fairy tale ending we sometimes prefer.

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

Identical by Ellen Hopkins

If you’ve read any titles by Ellen Hopkins before, you know that she writes her stories in free verse poetry.  At first this bothered me.  But then one of our students told me that she noticed how the shapes the groupings of words and lines made added to the meaning of the words.  Here’s an example:

It isn’t an option,

If you tell

a secret

about someone

you don’t really know,

other people might

listen,

but decide you’re

making it up.  Even if you

happen to know for a fact

it’s true.

Although Raeanne and Kaeleigh are identical twins down to their dimples, they couldn’t be more different.  Raeanne spends her free time with her drug dealing boyfriend, “partying” and having sex in his truck.  In contrast, Kaeleigh is involved with the usual high school extracurricular activities.  Their parents, although successfully involved in Ray’s career as a judge and his re-election campaign, have little time for the girls.  Except for one thing—their father has been sexually abusing Kaeleigh since a terrible car accident years before.  The girls’ story is told in alternating points of view, their voices helping distinguish them from one another.  Life gets harder and harder for the girls, until a frightening event occurs followed by a shocking discovery.

Due to the subject matter, this is a book for mature readers.  Although not perfect, I loved this book and think Hopkins is simply an amazing writer who seems to be able to transport herself into the minds and hearts of young adults.

Down These Mean Streets

Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas

Recently I read a wonderful book from the Berkeley High library called Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas.  The book is an autobiography that details the life of Piri Thomas, from his teenage years to his adult years spent behind bars.  Thomas’ book was thrilling! There was not a dull moment throughout the book; a scene that summarizes the concept of the book was when Piri was screaming at his brother about being African and Puerto Rican. The screaming gradually turned into tears and fist filled with anger all waiting to erupt upon the next person to make a remark. Piri would fight his father and little brother not realizing that he was fighting something dark inside of himself, after this series of fights Piri is kicked out of the house and left homeless struggling to find his way through New York and beat a strong drug addiction.

Down these Mean Streets deserves a 9 out of 10.  I recommend this book to readers who like activism, books written in the 1940s, Spanish speaking books, and twisted love stories.

Reviewed by P. Alcorn, class of 2011

Crank and Glass

Crank and Glass both by Ellen Hopkins

This is another book I discovered via one of our avid readers. When she told me about the book, at first I wasn’t that enthusiastic, because I’m not a big fan of novels told in verse (free form poetry). But she convinced me to try it anyway, and now I’m so addicted that I just finished my third book by this writer! Both Crank and Glass are about a girl named Kristina.  When Kristina goes to visit her father that she rarely sees, she gets introduced to “the monster,” the highly addictive methamphetamine, sometimes called crystal or crank by users. This is when she discovers “Bree,” her alter ego she who’s the bad girl. It’s the fearless Bree who falls so under the spell of the monster, that she’ll do anything to get more. This book ends with Kristina in a terrible situation, where she must come to terms with her addiction, or completely give up.
Glass picks us where Crank ends. Here is how Kristina/Bree describes her life at the beginning of the book:

“My Mother and Stepfather

Tried to stop me before
it all went completely wrong.
Kristina spent almost a whole
year GUFN–grounded
until further notice.

But Bree was really good
at prying open windows
at night, lying with a straight
face, denying she had
slipped so far downhill.

Nothing slowed me down,
Not losing my virginity
to Brenden’s rape. Not
spending a few days
in juvenile hall…

Pregnant. And Brenden
was the father. Bree considered
abortion. Exorcism. Kristina
understood the baby was not
the demon. His father was.”

Even though she’s a new mother living at home and working at 7-11, Kristina still thinks she can control the monster. She quickly discovers that she can never be in charge if she’s using, but doesn’t have the inner strength to stop using. In fact, she graduates to Glass, a purer and even more addictive form of crank.

I actually liked the second book better than the first. Her character felt more honest, and it was easy to identify with her struggles, even though I’ve never faced these particular problems. Although these books are fiction, they are loosely based on the author’s daughter’s own experiences. This fact, which she tells at the beginning of Crank, made it even more interesting. This books are sort of like Go Ask Alice for our times.

Midnight

Midnight by Sister Souljah

The Coldest Winter Ever took me two days to complete, while Midnight took me two weeks. Needless to say, the book was simply unsatisfying. I believe it was nothing like I would’ve imagined because I simply set my expectations too high. The book was a coming of age story about Midnight and how he struggles to stay true to himself. After leaving Africa, he is forced to protect his mother and his sister. Due to the fact that his mother can’t speak English he has to be her shadow to make sure nobody harms her. He takes the husband role and instead of living the life of a fourteen year old, he lives as a thirty four-year-old. When he comes to America, he is placed in the smack center of the ghetto: the Brooklyn projects. As he manages to find his mother a decent job he manages to also find love. A Japanese girl, Akemi steals his attention. Meanwhile, other girls recognize his body maturing and the masculinity that overflows his skin. Midnight has to question who he is and what he really stands for. This definitely isn’t a sequel; no one from The Coldest Winter Ever exists. It’s like this time Sista Soulja isn’t focusing on pleasing the reader but getting the moral across.

I would recommend this to anyone who has problems with their identity, and for anyone who questions how to incorporate their religious beliefs into a whole other world that completely opposes everything they stand for.

I rate the book a four out of ten. I was never told it was supposed to be a sequel but, looking back, I now realize it failed on every level. Don’t get me wrong the book is well written but Midnight is not Midnight: A Gangster Love Story. It is Midnight: A Staying True to Your Beliefs Story.

Written by La Shay Class of 2009