YA or STFU

Wizner, Jake (2007). Spanking Shakespeare. NY: Random House. 304 pages.

Shakespeare Shapiro is a victim of circumstance. First, his name: who other than crazy parents names their kid Shakespeare (and his brother Ghandi)? In spite of the fact that he is older (and wiser) than his brother, Shakespeare is in Ghandi's social shadow. At the beginning of his senior year, Shakespeare's desires seem almost attainable: he will win his school's memoir contest and finally find a girl willing to have sex with him.

Before you dismiss this book out of hand (as I almost did) for being just another one of those "school-assignment-turns-into-a-novel" books, give this one a try. Yes, it does include the main character's "writings" (in Courier font, no less) and, yes, these first-person writings supplement the already first-person framing narrative; however, somehow, the trope works in this book. Because Shakespeare's school assignment is to write his memoir, the alternative writings provide background and characterization, while the primary narrative details the protagonist's senior year.

By placing self-effacing and sometimes even disgusting comedy at the forefront of both plot and characterization, Spanking takes the school assignment trope a little farther than usual. Shakespeare's best friends--a mean girl who likes to get drunk and a loser-ish guy who loves to talk about his own poo--are "flawed" but hysterical counterparts whose presence almost mitigates the seventeen-year-old-virgin-looking-to-get-laid plotline. A smart and sarcastic narrative raises the literary bar from potential Last American Virgin and Little Darlin's territory to something more along the lines of C.D. Payne's Youth In Revolt.

Posted by Amy P. at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

MacCaughrean, Geraldine (2007). The White Darkness. NY: Harperteen. 384 pages.

By now you probably know how I feel about award-winning books. I'm usually pretty wary of the way in which a literary award confers a kind of value status on a young adult novel, particularly when the criteria for such an award is applied so differently from year to year. This 2008 Printz award winner, however, exceeded my expectations. The story of fourteen-year-old Symone's journey to Antarctica with her crazy uncle was suspenseful, harrowing, and altogether a compelling read.

After the death of her father, Symone and her mother invite his somewhat odd brother to live with the family. Uncle Victor, Symone's father's former business partner, is of genius intelligence (at least, that's what he keeps telling everyone) and of manic demeanor. After the family's plans to travel to Paris for a holiday change due to a missing passport, Symone finds herself accompanying her uncle on a trip to the Antarctic. There, she learns of her Uncle's plans to find Symme's Hole, a portal to the center of the earth. The trip to Antarctica fulfills a long held desire of both Uncle Victor and Symone, who has been raised on stories of the South Pole and has long admired Captain "Titus" Oates, a member of the doomed British exploration party. When Uncle Victor and Symone arrive with a group of travelers in Antarctica, Symone loses herself in daydreams of "Titus" as Victor's single-minded pursuit of Symme's Hole becomes destructive.

The detailed depiction of the brutal Antarctic wilderness, the characterization of a crazy and unpredictable uncle, and a narrative that shifts from the imaginary to the real are the hallmarks of MacCaughrean's novel. In fact, it is this blending of fact and fantasy that really make the book a deeper read. Symone, who is characterized as a shy and awkward adolescent, finds solace in her imaginings of "Titus," with whom she speaks and consults in extended private musings. When her uncle's quest to find Symme's Hole is revealed, in light of Symone's fully realized (albeit imaginary) relationship with "Titus," the possibility that such a place would exist and that a portal to a world in the Earth's interior would lead the two to a new and different civilization seems almost founded. Only as Uncle Victor's manipulations are revealed and his behavior becomes more erratic and even dangerous, do we begin to question (as Symone does) the quest. Unfortunately, as we question Victor's fantasy, we also have to question Symone's, and, while one takes place in the "real" world and the other in Symone's head, the two worlds begin to blend and shift in intriguing ways.

While a student of mine noted that, in her estimation, the book dragged a bit towards the middle, I found the pacing to move at a pretty decent clip. Part literal survival story and part coming-of-age novel, White Darkness is notable for the way it mirrors the British party's expedition. The "worst journey in the world," indeed.

Posted by Amy P. at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)