808.899283 (Adolescent literature) - Week One

Okay, so we're technically in Week Five right now... I'm just really really behind in updating my blog. Things have been NUTS and they'll continue to be so for the next few weeks, as I have an interview next week Wednesday for an academic librarianship position. SCARY THINGS!

Week one's theme for Adolescent Literature was "Perspectives on Adolescence and Childhood" and we read two novels on this theme: Sarah Dessen's Just Listen and Jacqueline Woodson's Miracle's Boys.

Just Listen is a novel about Annabel, the youngest of three sisters and a model, who has a falling out with her best friend, Sophie, over the summer and returns to the school year to find herself isolated and friendless. In her aloneness, she meets Owen, a loner who is passionate about music and has a habit of telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Owen strikes up a friendship with Annabel, one based on sharing music and time together. As they grow closer and Annabel becomes more comfortable with their friendship, Annabel tries to find the courage to open up about what really happened on the night when her friendship with Sophie ended.

Miracle's Boys follows the story of Layfaette and his older brothers, Ty'ree and Charlie, and the struggles the boys go through trying to grow up in New York after the death of both of their parents. Ty'ree, the eldest boy, tries to support the family as best he can, and Charlie has just returned home from a correctional facility. The story focuses on Lafayette's coming of age and how the boys need to make choices to be there for one another to overcome their struggles.

I enjoyed both books, which really surprised me, as I'm not normally a realistic fiction fan. Both books just seemed to have an excellent balance of tough stuff, teen angst, and humor. Both books were successful in their messages as well.

More to come about the other books read in class later this week and over the weekend, at least until I catch up.

808.899283 (Adolescent Literature) - Introduction

I'm in an adolescent literature class this semester, which started with us reading about game literacy and the integration of multimedia into teen programming. We were given an assignment to build a video game level with Sploder, a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) builder that is entirely online and doesn't require any type of download. I am rather impressed with the platform overall, and was especially entertained when their introductory email was written as if a child had applied for the account; the email told the "parent" all about Sploder and included a link where they could see what "their child" was doing. I have to give the folks at Sploder props - they really wanted the parents to be involved.

The process of creating a level was entertaining and interesting, and I think that most of us in the class had a whole lot of fun. My level is playable below or at this link if you don't like the embedded play (I don't, personally).

Make a Free Flash Game

I'm going to be doing quite a few blog posts for this class. The posts will have with similar post titles, with each post getting a new chapter heading, or, where I can, the detailed Dewey number for specific types of adolescent lit. There will be quite a few book reviews (we're expected to read 2 or 3 books a week), as well as more multimedia projects. I'm excited to see where the class takes me!

746.46 (Patchwork and quilting)

Christmas has come and gone and this holiday season and my funds for purchasing gifts was minuscule. Grad school will do that to your budget. So most of the gifts this season were handmade, including a quilt for my sister-in-law, one that was supposed to be a gift for her bridal shower, which never happened because of a pushed up wedding date. I had already purchased the fabric for the quilt, so it was basically a no extra cost gift. It's not "done" yet, but it's pieced. Just need to get a nice batting and backer.

Pieced quilt. 

Close up of quilt.

Close up of quilt.

The quilt doesn't have an official pattern, it's just a series of 4"x4", 6"x4", 8"x4", and 10"x4" squares and rectangles cycling through a pattern with each row, alternating reds and blues. The starting pattern is laid out like this: 4", 6", 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4". The following rows cycle through this pattern, taking the block on the left and then putting it on the far right of the row: 6", 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4", 4". Next row then looks like 8", 4"(white), 10", 4"(white), 8", 6", 4", 4", 6", and so on.

I didn't pay attention to the exact fabric order, just ensured that squares next to each other weren't made of the same fabric. Rows vary on how they match up - sometimes a row will have 4 or 5 seam matches, sometimes only 2. It's easy to cut out and easy to stitch together, though. It was quick work (maybe 4-6 hours total) to cut and piece.

792.9 (Stage productions)

Well, folks. Our production of "Barefoot in the Park" had opening night yesterday and is playing through this weekend. I'm mighty thankful to the lovely photographer, Jeneene Olson-McConley, who took some stellar shots of the set and the actors doing their thing:

Pre-show set

Mr. Velasco and Corie - Fixing the Heat

Mr. Wiese, High School Principal, playing the role of Delivery Man 

Planning the Evening - Making Mom More Interesting

A Little White Lie - Mom and Dad? More like Blind Date!

Another week and my life is my own again, but in the meantime, we have a play and it's going fantastically! Much love to the cast and FANTASTIC crew who helped me build this set.

155.9042 (Stress)

Yes, folks. I've been feeling it. Stress. 12 credits of grad school (3 of that being practicum) + 6-10 hours a week working at one of the campus libraries  + 10 hours a week of set building and tech theatre with high school students = one stressed out Stephanie. I'm dealing with it as best I can, but I'm starting to drop things and miss appointments, and generally feel the effects of it. All that said, I'm SO looking forward to November when I'll be able to breath again because I won't have 24 hours a week of practicum.

I'm going to miss my practicum experience, though. I have absolutely loved working with my cooperating librarian and her library staff. They're great people who really know what they're doing. It almost makes me wish I could work there full-time! My cooperating librarian really "gets" school librarianship and she rocks my world every day. What a colleague to have - the teachers in her building are so lucky to have her!

I've recently been struggling on what kind of librarian I want to be when I finish school in May, and not having a clear feeling one way or the other is starting to get to me. We'll see where I end up come spring/summer. I sign up for classes soon and perhaps it'll help let me know where I'd like to be. I think I'll just have to wait and see... which is easier said than done.

Otherwise, life is pretty peachy. Our show goes up in 2 weeks (Barefoot in the Park), I'm kinda keeping up on homework, and I'm not completely missing my husband. Good, good, and good. I'll post some pictures once the show is up and going and I'll definitely post some finished pictures of the set. My hope is that I'll be finished by Thursday night. Scary and crazy that it's happening so soon! Here's to stress, friends.

Fic Qui (Reviewing "Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock")

Hoo boy. How do you talk about "Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock" by Matthew Quick? The book is disturbing, to be sure, but it has a sense of humor, a deep self-depreciation, and a wonderful back and forth dialogue.

A quick summary for you: Leonard is a bit different. He loves Hamlet by Shakespeare and movies with Humphrey Bogart. He sometimes skips school to pretend to be an adult, dressing in his "funeral suit" to follow the most miserable adult on the bus wherever they're going. And on the day of his eighteenth birthday, he decides that he is going to take his grandfather's WWII war trophy, a P-38 Nazi handgun, and kill both his former best friend, Asher, and himself. But before he decides to "shuffle off this mortal coil", he wants to deliver gifts to those who have meant the most to him: his Bogie loving neighbor, Walt, a violin playing classmate from Iran named Baback, a home schooled student, Lauren, and his history of the holocaust teacher, Herr Silverman. As he delivers his last gifts, Leonard slowly reveals his secrets and what has led to his startling decision to commit murder-suicide.

Yes, this book is a little depressing. Yes, this book is a little disturbing. Yes, this book is DEFINITELY for a more adult reader. Between the subject matter, the language (the f-bomb is dropped numerous times), and the general mental stability of our main character, the book is great for a more advanced, more mature reader.

Five Defects

1. This book has sporadic footnotes. I don't mind reading a novel or info book with a plethora of foot notes (I mean, I'm a Mary Roach fan for goodness sakes), but the foot notes exist in the beginning of the book and suddenly no longer exist! Where did they go?
2. I disliked the portrayal of some teachers in the novel. Granted, I take it with a grain of salt - it's teachers from a student's perspective. But I distinctly dislike the portrayal of female educators in this book. It doesn't ruin it for me, though. That and the whole idea of "mandatory reporting" is NOT done in this book.
3. Ugh. Leonard's mother is SO messed up.
4. I understand the letters, I do. They almost made me feel that the book was going to go Sci-Fi on me instead of realistic fiction, though.
5. Why isn't there a firm ending? WHY? I want there to be something a little more firm, but I think the ending is beautiful in its own way.

Five Delights

1. Oh, the humor! It's what makes the serious, really dark subject matter of this book bearable. Without the laughs here and there, the book would be too depressing to read.
2. The book keeps you guessing and doesn't really let you know what's happening until the end. I love how it unfolds as the story progresses.
3. Oh, Herr Silverman. That is a teacher, folks. That is a teacher.
4. The book has a very authentic voice. Matthew Quick obviously understands trauma and mental illness very well. I appreciate a book dealing with some serious mental issues that doesn't handle it like a traditional "mental illness" book.
5. The book messed with my mind and I love a novel like that. As things unfold, I kept on being surprised, turned around, and off balance. I really enjoy that.

Fic Gre (Reviewing "The Fault in Our Stars")

It ended in snot and tears my friends, but what a glorious, heart-wrenching piece of work it was. There are now THREE books/series that make me sob uncontrollably as I finish them:  1) The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 2) His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, AND NOW 3) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Read the summary at the link to Goodreads. I'm not going summarize it in this blog post.

I immediately knew I had to read this book when the TITLE of the freakin' book was straight outta Shakespeare. I've always loved quoting Shakespeare's Caesar, saying "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings", and how perfectly did John Green work the quote into the novel? PERFECTLY. No really. I'm still a little shell shocked by this book 24-hours after completing it, and I do NOT know how to talk out loud about it yet without getting a little teary. Evidence of a good book that really caused a great deal of TRUE catharsis? Walking into the bedroom with the book to get ready for bed after finishing, being kinda weepy, and then having one's husband ask, "Are you okay?" and only having the response of full-out open weeping while saying multiple times "It's so sad and so beautiful" through a plethora of snot and tears while holding the book to one's chest.

My husband pulled me to him and laughed. Apparently great emotional distress over the lives of fictional characters is a laughing matter.

I was so filled with the book and processing it that I didn't sleep well. I ended up reading another book from 10:45 pm to 1:45 am in order to actually calm myself enough emotionally to sleep. Do all books affect me so? Definitely not. But the books that made me do so before (and EVERY time I read them) are listed above. I've had profound endings I love (see the last book of Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series, for example), but only a few books have made me crazy weepy and emotional. John Green's book is now one of them.

Five Defects:

1. The book really isn't as accessible as I'd like it to be. You need to really GET metaphor, GET nuance, GET the super high-brow vocabulary. This book definitely isn't an "any reader" book. It's for the brainy kids (SORRY!). I wish it was more accessible for more readers.
2. Does the vocab and intelligence of this book sometimes (RARELY) interfere with storytelling? Once in a very little while, but it is a point to make. Green balances it well, but there are a few instances where I wish they could have dropped a joke or two.
3. This book WILL offend someone. Just warning you. It's also one of my reasons for LOVING this book, but for some it will be a defect.
4. DON'T read the last 1/3 of this book in public. You risk crying uncontrollably and looking a fool. As a fellow SLIS student mentioned, it was awkward reading the end of this book at the service desk. Don't do it. I was lucky enough to be in the privacy of my own home with only my hubby to witness my breakdown. (I really have been lucky with these books... I always finish them in relative "aloneness" with someone close enough to hug afterwords). Read the first part wherever, leave the last 1/3 for home.
5. Why does it end like that? WHY???? Okay, I know why. It's a cancer book, people. But really? John Green? You're killing me.

Five Delights:

1. This book WILL offend someone. It has cursing, it has sex, it has death, it has 'violence' and destruction of property. It has groping and inappropriate topics. AND IT'S OKAY! Granted, I'm REALLY open minded, but I think that the REALNESS of this book will hit home for teens.
2. It is FILLED with black humor and INTELLIGENT sarcasm. I grew up with an oncology nurse for a mother; I was always taught that death and dying, while tragic and definitely very personal and serious at times, should always be treated with a side of laughter. Yes, we tell jokes at funerals. Yes, we've joked with a family friend passing from cancer about the sheer amount of puke he could heave after a chemo treatment. It's kinda how I grew up and I LOVE that Green fills the novel with this light-hearted fare. Without it, the book would be awful and depressing. With it, it shines.
3. I love how it has a "sex scene" without actually writing a sex scene... and the freakin' Venn diagram afterwords! Thank you for an absolutely GORGEOUS handling of sex in a teen novel, John Green. As an adult reader, I really appreciated it.
4. The metaphor, the poetry, the use of literary devices throughout. The story is great, but the prose is marvelous. I'm so wrapped up in it. It's so full of marvelous quotes and poetry. Simply amazing.
5. I KNEW how it was going to end, but I couldn't stop reading. Green does a fantastic job of writing some of the saddest subject matter EVER - it's a cancer book, people. But it's not the "magically I'm cured" type of cancer book, it's the true nitty gritty cancer book. Thank you for that, especially thank you for a book that an audience LIVING the book will appreciate.