47

Reader Response to 47 by Walter Mosley

Back cover (excerpt from preface) reads:
"The story you are about to read concerns certain ebents that occurred in the early days of my life. It all happened over a hundred and seventy years ago. For many of you it might sound like a tall tale because I am no older today than I was back there in the year 1832. But this is no whopper I'm telling; it is a story about my boyhood as a slave and my fated encounter with the amazing Tall John from beyond Africa, who could read dreams, fly between galaxies, and make friends with any animal no matter how wild."

My response:
The cover is incredibly deceiving. I thought that it was going to be about the underground railroad. it kind of is. It's uncle tom's cabin meets a wrinkle in time. It's got this historical fiction/weird stream-of-consciousness/science fiction thing going on. The only thing I really didn't like about it was the ending. Authors take note: it ended very abruptly, with one of those damn happily-ever-after things. It seems like the author was either 1) too lazy to finish the work or 2) didn't know how to. I hate it when authors do that.... it jars me out of the story prematurely. not a great way to end the book. There's a difference between the type of ending that leaves you hanging... and this that leaves you with nothing... everything is tied up in a pretty package. PUKE.

It was pretty stellar. I liked how it read really fast. finished it in about 3 hours. Lots of christian imagery... lots of imagery. Wonderfully written. I would recommend it to students ages 13-18. The seniors might understand some of the weird abstract things... and the younger kids will just like it because it's a great story.

I, however, do not think that it's a timeless work. But who cares! It wins the Word Nerd Seal of Approval.

a nice quote:
"Flies zipped around them and the sun beat down like Satan's hammer on their backs" (93).

out

Gangsta Rap

Thoughts on Gangsta Rap by Benjamin Zephaniah

Back cover reads:
"Ray has trouble at shcool and trouble at home. But when his school permanently expels him and his friends Prem and Tyrone, it takes the courage of the adults who believe in these boys, and the boys' own passion to make music, to turn their lives around. Will the rap band they form make it? And will they all survive the violence of the world they've chosen?"

My response:
It's not bad, but it's not good, either. This was the first book that I couldn't finish. The first part of it was ok, but then it gets into this mystery type thing... and it's just not written that well. The suspense and imagery should be kicked up about 10 notches. I thought I would like it because I'm into rap. I liked the beginning... but it's just so boring that I don't want to read it anymore.... and that makes it a slow read, which I do NOT like. It's also by a British author, so some of the spelling is different. I would recommend it to guys ages 14-16. I just don't think girls would like this book, but I could be wrong. Sorry, no Word Nerd Seal of Approval for unfinished books.

Stoner and Spaz

Reader Response to Stoner and Spaz by Ron Koertge

Inside cover reads:

For 16 year old Ben Bancroft- a kid with cerebral palsy, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother, the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre, watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. Of course, the lastperson he wants to run into is drugged-out Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos. But when Colleen climbs into the seat beside him and rests a woozy head on his shoulder, Ben has that unmistakable feeling that his life is about to change.

My Rxn:

i have mixed feelings about it. It's a great bildungsroman. Ben is a typical teenager who's CP has left half of his body deformed. Any guy between the ages of 14-17 would like this book. The content, however, is not classroom appropriate. It's a very fast read. I polished it off in about 5 hours. The tone of this story is just how I like it. Biting sarcasm. things don't end happily ever after, either. we're left hanging. we wonder about Ben's future. so I like it. It'll get some guys to read a book. Extra bonus points for using resplendent in the cover and various other big words throughout. I think it wins the WNSoA. I just won't use it in my classroom.

Notables:

"The next day I find myself prowling the halls... Well, I don't prowl the halls, but at least I'm in the halls. I don't just go sit in my homeroom like a fungus" (26).

"In old-fashioned cartoons there are always rich women looking at things through these glasses-on-a-stick. That is my grandma. She pretty much looks at everything like she has glasses-on-a-stick. Including me. Especially me" (33). Sounds like this kid's grama and my grama should get together and go shoe shopping.

"The lead sing mutters the lyrics ominously, like a postal worker with an Uzi in his gym bag" (103).

"I get into the short line leading into the men's rooom. The three other guys leaning against the wall look like Indolence, Idleness, and Sloth" (103).

"There's a great word to dscribe Colleen's eyes right that second: coruscating" (109).

Main Entry: cor·us·cate

Pronunciation: 'kor-&-"skAt, 'kär-

Function: intransitive verb

Inflected Form(s): -cat·ed; -cat·ing

Etymology: Latin coruscatus, past participle of coruscare to flash

1 : to give off or reflect light in bright beams or flashes : SPARKLE

2 : to be brilliant or showy in technique or style

from www.m-w.com

"But all of a sudden there she is, lookling like an icicle in white linene slacks and a white blouse" (125).

"Well, I asked God to remove all character defects and shortcomings, and He said He'd have to get back to me on that because there are only so many hours in a day" (136).

"She smells blue. Not blue as in sad, either. Azure. That blue" (149).

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl

Reader response to Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

Front cover reads:
"Matt Donaghy has always been a big mouth. But it's never gotten him into trouble- until one day when two detectives escort him out of class for questioning. Mat has been accused of threatening to blow up Rocky River High School.
Ursula Riggs has always been an ugly girl. A loner with fierce, staring eyes, Ursula has no time for petty high school stuff like friends and dating- or at least that's what she tells herself. Ursula is content with minding her own business, and she doesn't even really know Matt Donaghy.
But Ursula is the only person who knows what Matt realy said that day... and she is the only one who can help him."

My Rxn:
Resplendent. I can completely identify with the attitudes of our protagonists. I love Ursula, aka, Ugly Girl, Woman Warrior. We have a lot in common. Matt reminds me of my friend, Tony. I'd recommend this book for 13-18 year olds. and 18 would be a stretch, but I found it amusing. It's a great story.... and very modern-day Crucible, if you will. good stuff. Word Nerd Seal of Approval it wins. Type like Yoda I do. i polished it off in about 5 days. took me a while to get into it, but when it finally struck me, I couldn't stop reading it. I can identify with the roles that each character plays. I think that Ursula really is our protagonist and heroine, because she makes the most changes. It's not to say that Matt doesn't change, but his change isn't as dramatic.

Here are some awesome quotes:
"Everything tastes like burned toast and smells like gym socks" (88).

"For dress-up I'd put in all my ear studs- nine in each ear. (Not that they matched.) I felt big and clumsy as a horse trapped ina tinsel candy box" (117).

"A FIERY RED sensation was moving up my brain like liquid mercury" (175).

"Mrs. Donaghy, when I first saw her, looked exactly like the kind of weepy wimpy female I can't stand" (230).

Zipped

Reader Response to Zipped by Laura and Tom McNeal

Inside cover reads:

"When 15 year old Mick Nichols opens the wrong email, he learns a terrible secret . His beautiful, affectionate stepmother is having an affair with a man named Alexander Selkirk. Should Mick tell his father, confront his stepmother, or keep it all to himself? And who, exactly, is Alexander Selkirk?

Mick becomes obsessed with the infidelity, in spite of some serious distractions. Distractions like Lisa Doyle, the religious field-hockey player with the coppery red hair, like the surprising (but appreciated) affections of Myra Vidal, a famously gorgeous college freshman with a secret of her own. Like the strange robberies at the Village Greens, where he works with Lisay Doyle. Day after day, Mick grapples with the mystry of Alexander Selkirk. And at the moment he discovers Selkirk's true identity, he realizes all his problems are all zipped up together- and that he may have to go to drastic lengths to untangle them."

Rxn:

Interesting, but it kind of drags on. appropriate for -11 grade. Plot is well developed, as is Mick's character. The thing that caught my attention the most was the cover. I'm glad it played into the story somehow. There are 3 different parts to the book, and each part begins with a snippet of "sing a song of sixpence." There are 4 characters around which the plot revolves. But Mick is the protagonist.

Teens can relate to at least one thing in this book. It has everything. There are divorced and remarried parents, a mother who lives far away and is basically non-existent, a mysterious/cheating steopmother who seems nice, the geeky-freaky best friend who lives in his own little universe, the bombshelle closeted lesbian who has a crush on her friend, a slimball teacher who hits on his students, a sleazy, sexist, racist supervisor at work, a boy crazy sophomore girl, a few mormon elders, a redhead, a dog named "foolish," and a little porcelain baby Lucifer. Who could ask for more?

It may seem like an impressive lineup, but it needs more of something. More... enthusiasm, breath of life, SOMETHING. Things are well written, but if this story was pushed a little more, it would be the type of book I would have read in 1 day. Instead, it took me 5. No Word Nerd Seal of Approval for this one. It's kind of light-hearted and made me crack a grin every so often, though.

I think the thing that struck me the most was this:

"Don't ever tell your mom you're with me when you're not! I just went to your apartment, and your mom asked me why I wasn't with you at the library" (201). I used to do this to one of my friends. I would tell my mom that I was at A's house when I was really at my boyfriend's house. Both were seriously pissed at me when I finally got caught.

The McNeals use the term "visigoth" on page 201 as well. "He was a predator, a regular Visigoth"

Main Entry: Vis·i·goth Pronunciation: 'vi-z&-"gäth

Function: noun

Etymology: Late Latin Visigothi, plural: a member of the western division of the Goths - Vis·i·goth·ic /"vi-z&-'gä-thik/ adjective

interesting. i'd heard that word before, but never in a negative way.

A great instance of the sporadically witty writing can be found on pp. 202:

"Mrs. Stallings was all business. She'd noted that Mr. Cruso had been called away on urgent business, written an assignment on the board, and explained that students 'should hold any questions, concerns, or feeble ideas about leaving the classroom until Mr. Cruso's return.' When Dale Deckert in his most polite voice asked Mrs. Stallings if she 'was a distant relation to Joseph Stalin,' she'd promptly written him up for Saturday school, and the classroom had thereafter fallen silent."

heh

Quid pro quo

Reader response to Quid Pro Quo by Vicki Grant

Inside cover reads:

"Cyril MacIntyre's mother is a twenty-eight-year-old ex-street kid who drags her son to all her law school classes, then proceeds to get herself kidnapped. That aside, Cyril's life isn't all that different from other thirteen-year-olds'. He has all the usual adolescent issues to deal with, parent problems, self esteem problems, skin, hair, and girl problems. He just has legal problems too. And he's got to solve them if he wants to save his mother's live."

My rxn:

The inside cover is more interesting than the entire book! It's a weak mystery novel, and that's all. I do like the style in which it was written; it was very sarcastic and colorful. There could have been more though.

Quotes:

"By noon the waiting room was packed, and I know it really stank too because whenever I ran for a sub, I'd come back and the smell would hit me like someone had just thrown a big juicy perspiration cream pie in my face" (13).

"Andy looked at him like he was one of those slimy hair-boogers that clog up the shower drain" (32).

It's not bad, but it's not good, either.