Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Lia Overbrook and Cassie Parrish have been best friends since the third grade.  But as they grow up, they both develop destructive obsessions with body image, dragging each other down because each is afraid of dealing with her appearance.  Lia is anorexic, and Cassie is a victim of bulimia.  As things become too tough, Cassie is put into rehab by her parents.  After she is “recovered,” Cassie breaks off her friendship with Lia.  Six months later, after not having communicated with her ex-friend in ages, Lia receives thirty-three phone calls from Cassie in one evening but refuses to answer.  When she discovers the next day that Cassie has died alone in a dirty motel room, Lia realizes that Cassie had been calling for help and she is confounded by guilt.  Lia's parents divorced and absorbed in their own careers and new lives, are unaware of the severity of their daughter's eating problem.  Through all this, Lia keeps her family at a distance, concealing her inner turmoil and tricking them into believing she’s healthy.  Lia's fragile hold on health and reality is slipping; haunted by Cassie's ghost, she finds herself losing control of her life, sinking into cutting and starvation that can only end in her own death.

Lia’s story is written from her point of view, which is very effective in showing how serious her problems are and how she views life.  Being able to read her thoughts and actions is both disturbing and thrilling—it’s what gives the story its power.  I think that girls would be interested to read this book and see the life of Lia and how she lives with anorexia, because it can show them that starving to become skinny is never the answer and can lead to death. Also, if someone is suffering from an eating disorder, this book could save their life.  Having an eating disorder is no laughing manner, and could end in death or serious injuries to the person’s health.  This book shows Lia as she starves herself and as she walks on the brink of death in her constant struggle of eating enough to live and not eating too much to be “fat.”  Maybe Wintergirls could prompt someone to recognize that they—or a friend—has a problem and needs professional help.

I wouldn’t recommend this book to those under the age of thirteen, and even then the reader must be able to handle serious topics and situations.  For those thirteen and older, this book shows it isn’t easy being anorexic and the disease is not something to make fun of.  I would also recommend this book to parents because if they see the signs in their children, they can stop them before it’s too late and get them help.  The only problem with this book is it’s very powerful and could be hard to get through form some readers.  Laurie Halse Anderson did it again- she wrote another stunning and serious book to show the reader a problem and what it’s like to have this problem.  She is an amazing writer of teen and adult novels and I’d recommend any book by her, especially Wintergirls.

Reviewed by Katie

Laurie Halse Anderson speaks about Wintergirls

Links to important Anorexia Websites

National Association of Anorexia Nervosa 

National Insitutes of Health webpage  

The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt

 

            The Wednesday Wars, by Gary Schmidt, revolves around the adolescence of Holling Hoodhood during the late 1960s. Holling lives in the New York suburbs and is just starting seventh grade at a time when the Vietnam War is raging and the civil rights movement is tearing across the country. On Holling’s first day of seventh grade, he decides that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, wants to destroy him. What makes the whole predicament worse is that Holling must stay with Mrs. Baker on Wednesday afternoons while all the other seventh grade students get to leave. Half of the class is Jewish and attends Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El, and the other half is Catholic and attends Catechism at Saint Adelbert’s. Since Holling is Presbyterian and does not have classes, he must endure horrible Mrs. Baker all by himself on Wednesday afternoons. The predicament becomes even worse after his family gets involved. Holling’s father is the owner of Hoodhood and Associates, a local architecture agency that just so happens to be a contender to do architectural work for the Baker Sporting Emporium. Mrs. Baker’s family owns the Baker Sporting Emporium, so that means that Holling must be extremely cautious that he does not make Mrs. Baker angry and ruin his family’s opportunity. Mrs. Baker makes Holling clean erasers and complete other nifty jobs during their initial Wednesday afternoon get-togethers. Holling manages to ruin a cluster of delicious cream puffs that get a group of women sick and let two revolting class pets escape during that time. She then decides to make Holling read Shakespeare during their time to avoid any more catastrophes from happening. Mrs. Baker realizes how much potential Holling has, but he dreads the thought of reading books like Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice. Holling simply does not have faith in himself and is not very outgoing. However, as they begin reading, Holling discovers that Shakespeare is not half bad. He begins using a colorful set of insults that only a person who reads Shakespeare would know. Holling slowly develops a new sense of confidence that was missing in his life. 

             Holling performs in the Long Island Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest, gets a girlfriend, and joins the track team. Holling also finds that the evil Mrs. Baker is not as bad as he thought she was. She takes him to Opening Day at Yankee Stadium after his father lets him down. Mrs. Baker becomes a great friend to Holling during his times of need. By the end of the book Holling realizes that the only thing holding him back is himself. He does not have to worry about pressure from Mrs. Baker, his father, or anyone for that matter. Holling realizes that it is not wrong to do the right thing even if other people may disagree with it. By reading and learning Shakespeare, Holling learns many important lessons and gets a deep sense of confidence through the experience.

            I enjoyed reading The Wednesday Wars even though it is not necessarily an exciting book. It does not have a climatic ending that takes your breath away. However, it makes up for that by having a strong plot and an intriguing set of characters. While Holling struggles with the pressure weighing on him from Mrs. Baker and his father, we see how the other characters deal with their problems. Mai Thi is from Vietnam, and she faces prejudices that she does not deserve because of her race. Danny has a bar mitzvah to worry about. Meryl Lee’s father is also the head of a major architecture agency and gets pressure from him too. Doug has a big brother in eighth grade that is a bully to him and Holling, who fears Doug’s brother and sees him as a threat. The story also shows how well the time period is affecting everyone. Mrs. Bigio, the school lunch lady, grieves the loss of her husband who died in Vietnam Mrs. Baker’s brother is fighting in Vietnam.  She manages to get through teaching her students without going into a nervous breakdown from fear that her brother is dead or missing. Holling’s family even experiences tension between Holling’s father and his sister Heather. Heather thinks of herself as a flower child out to change the world, and she bickers with her conformist father over politics and other worldly events. She ends up running away in order to find herself but gets lost in Minnesota with no place to go. Holling manages to get her money for a train heading for New York. The book shows through Holling and the other character’s stories that people can overcome their problems if they have the right mindset. I would suggest this book to any teenager feeling that their problems are too big to handle. 
Reviewed by John

Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

                

               Breadcrumbs is a story about a young girl who goes on a life-risking journey just to save her best friend. Hazel and Jack are two best friends and fifth graders at Lovelace elementary. While most kids their age are playing sports and other activities, Hazel and Jack are pretending to be medieval knights or playing made up games such as superhero baseball. The main character and narrator of the story, Hazel, does not fit in with other kids in her class and has an “overactive imagination.” She loves to daydream about dragons and witches, and is often in trouble with her teacher for not paying attention during class. During the story, however, the one person who truly understands her changes into someone Hazel doesn’t recognize anymore. He doesn’t go through a physical transformation, but when a shard of glass fallen out of the sky from an enchanted mirror lands in Jack’s eye, he becomes a whole new person inside. Jack stops hanging out with Hazel and starts hanging out with his male friends. Shortly after Jack’s sudden transformation, he unexpectedly goes on a trip to visit his “Aunt Bernice.” But when Jack’s friend Tyler tells Hazel that he witnessed Jack entering the forest with some sort of witch on a sleigh, Hazel knows something terrible has happened to Jack. She must enter the snowy woods in her Minnesota backyard and go on a dangerous mission to save her friend. Throughout the journey Hazel runs into some frightening encounters, magical creatures, and even learns a bit about herself along the way.

                Reading this book has really taught me a valuable lesson… not to judge a book by it’s cover, literally. After skimming the contents and checking this book out at the library, I was eager to begin reading. Shortly after, I’ll admit, I found myself falling asleep.  Halfway through the book, however, the pace did seem to pick up and I started to become more engaged. Parts of her journey through the woods were riveting and brought my excitement level up, but I still thought that for the most part I would rather be reading something more attention grabbing. Towards the end, I found myself beginning to become more fascinated with the story.  The message behind the story was strong and important. Friendship is something of great value, and is something worth fighting for. I respected how Hazel would never give up on Jack, even when it seemed that all hope was lost.               

              I recommend this book to people within the ages of 8 and 11, but maybe not those who are in 7th and 8th grade or up.  I say this because it would make sense that a book about fifth graders would be written for children around the age of fifth grade.  The story is completely appropriate and I don’t see any reason why parents should disapprove of it. 

 Reviewed by Maddie

Marc Aronson Author Focus

 

Marc Aronson:  Pathfinder to New Knowledge

“We were on vacation . . . I could not stop reading . . . The book was the First Book of George Washington, a biography with black and white drawings.  Biography made reading worthwhile, and from that moment on I knew what I like reading.  Reading to read—forget it.  Reading to know—you can’t stop me.  I still haven’t stopped.  My guilty pleasures are the non-fiction books I don’t have to read, but just want to.  And, to my great surprise, my great fortune is that I write non-fiction books for a living, so I am constantly getting to read, to learn, and know more.”                                                                                                                                                                      Marc Aronson                        

This pathfinder is designed for teachers and students interested in learning more about Marc Aronson and his work.  Aronson is a tireless campaigner for readers of all ages but especially for young adults.  He states that he began editing and writing non-fiction for younger readers because he remembers feeling that " . . . non-fiction was both the entry into the adult world and a claim of my own territory" (Gale).  Aronson writes books of high interest for both teen and adult readers and works to promote literacy and relevant discussion on many educational topics.

 Biography:  Marc Henry Aronson was born in New York in 1950 to Lisa and Boris Aronson, both of whom were Broadway stage designers.  Aronson makes his home today in Maplewood, New Jersey with his wife and sometime co-author, Marina Budhos, and their two sons. Educated at New York University, the author has a PhD in American History and continues to work in academia as a professor at Rutgers in addition to authoring books, writing journal articles and maintaining a blog called "Non-fiction Matters."

 

Awards:  Aronson has won acclaim for several of his books.  According to his publisher Simon and Schuster, in 2001 he won the Robert L. Sibert Award for non-fiction for his book Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado.  The same work earned him the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.  The Sibert Award is very prestigious; according to their website, it is awarded annually by the ALSC to “the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the most distinguished informational book published in the United States in English during the preceding year.”  The Boston Globe-Horn Book Award is also given each year for achievement in children’s publishing to winners in three categories, including non-fiction.  Aronson has also won the LMP Award, a publisher’s honor.  The Annual LMP Awards “recognize the commitment, vision, and proficiency of persons and companies in different fields, (including editing and graphic design) that have helped create works of lasting significance.”  Pick-Up Game, a compilation of short stories in which Aronson is listed as the lead author, has recently been nominated for an Audie Award, an honor given by the Audio Publisher’s Association to the best adaptation to audio book.  Trapped: How the World Rescued 33 Miners from 2,000 Feet Below the Chilean Desert was awarded The Publisher's Weekly Best Book Award of 2011 for children's non-fiction.  This same award was bestowed on Aronson in 1998 for Art Attack:  A Short Cultural History of the Avant-Garde.

 

Contributions:  Like many YA authors, Aronson has a prolific body of work that covers many topics.  His specialty is non-fiction but his passion is “. . . to inspire young people to ask questions, to look around, behind, inside . . .” for information that the world has to impart.  Aronson believes strongly in young readers and their ability to understand and impact the world around them.  He lectures and visits schools, he appears before various agencies to extol the virtues of Young Adult literature and to argue for its continued presence.  Aronson describes himself a “committed internationalist” and his books often span multiple continents.  He recognizes the global nature of the world today and thinks that young people inherently accept this.  Because of that, he formed, Edge, an imprint that is dedicated to multicultural YA fiction and non-fiction.  He also supports Guys Read, a project that is directed at encouraging young men to read and is committed to providing them with material they would find engaging. 

Genres and Topics:  Marc Aronson has a PhD in American History and generally writes non-fiction books.  His books include topics that range from biographies of J. Edgar Hoover and Robert F. Kennedy to the real stories of Chilean miners trapped beneath the Earth and the legends of John Henry and other Americans of the past.  His book For Boys Only: The Biggest Baddest Book Ever is designed to attract boys with puzzles, facts and statistics.  He has written on American Independence, the Salem Witch Trials, explorers across the world and recently, about loving Palestine.  Aronson writes for middle graders and high school readers as well as for adults.   

Recommended or Highlighted Titles for the Classroom:  Aronson has written so many tempting titles it may difficult to choose only a few.  To a large extent, all of his books sound both appropriate and absorbing.  I recently read Sugar Changed the World, a book I would highlight because it was easy to read and digest yet contained so much fascinating information that I couldn’t put it down.  It would be extremely readable for middle schoolers and I think the mixture of adventure, fact and conflict would appeal to boys.  Another book that invites attention is Race: A History Beyond Black and White because race relations and their repercussions continue to have profound impact on the world.  This book comes with a teacher guide to using the material that would be beneficial to any classroom educator.  For Boys Only: The Biggest Baddest Book Ever certainly sounds attractive to have on a middle school classroom library shelf.  The description of hypothetical battles, statistics and facts, combined with the black and red graphics is very appealing.  One last book that I would draw attention to is The World Made New, a National Geographic Children’s Book that describes the Age of Exploration and the changes those adventurers brought to the world.   

Marc Aronson has many books worth investigating. The beauty of his work is that he combines factual information with the very real presence of the human beings who are at the core of his writing.  History and non-fiction are not simply old facts that must be learned or discarded as irrelevant in today's technology infused classroom.

"In all my books I am saying to readers:  the whole world and all of history is yours to swim in, to explore, to investigate, to question, to experiment with, to discover.  It does not belong to adults.  It need not be confined to dusty shelves or listed on search engines.  You have the right to find your place in this rich past that formed you, and in this vast world that surrounds you. Yes, you are your family, your school, your friends, your ethnicity, your religion.  But that is not all you are.  That is your . . . starting point, from there you can go anywhere" (Gale).

Look here for Marc Aronson's official website.  There are full descriptions of each of his books and additional information on the author.

Aronson is a regular contributor to The School Library Journal and The Horn Book Magazine among others.

Journal Articles of Interest

A focus on nonfiction. (2011). Childhood Education, 87(5), 366-366. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/875892552?accountid=12164

Like last years. (2010, May 05). The Washington Post, pp. C.4-C.4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/250167919?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2009, Sep 27). A librarian rides to a books rescue. New York Times, pp. NJ.16-NJ.16. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/434174389?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Bedside reading. School Library Journal, 54(2), 28-28. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211839505?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Being and nothingness. School Library Journal, 54(10), 31-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211824097?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2009). Caught in the net: Writing nonfiction in the age of google images, truthiness, twitter, and textbook hippos. The Horn Book Magazine, 85(5), 509-513. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/199370337?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Cracking open. School Library Journal, 54(4), 28-28. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211834272?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Face the facts. School Library Journal, 54(7), 21-21. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211831907?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2009). Moore of everything. School Library Journal, 55(6), 26-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211924105?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2011). New knowledge. The Horn Book Magazine, 87(2), 57-62. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/852999822?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). No direction home. School Library Journal, 54(11), 32-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211830264?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Not a pretty picture. School Library Journal, 54(6), 31-31. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211832306?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Selective memory. School Library Journal, 54(3), 34-34. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211834445?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2010, Apr 03). The end of history (books). New York Times, pp. A.17-A.17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/434356801?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2009). The universe is expanding. School Library Journal, 55(4), 22-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211924485?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). Things have gotta change. School Library Journal, 54(9), 33-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211831509?accountid=12164

Aronson, M. (2008). We've got the technology. School Library Journal, 54(12), 27-n/a. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lndlibrary.org/docview/211835287?accountid=12164

The above articles were found using the ProQuest database at the University of Notre Dame of Maryland library.  

 

Meet the Author Series interview with Marc Aronson 

Students interview Marc Aronson about Witch Hunt in this YouTube video

Pathfinder Sources:


marcaronson.com

Simon and Shuster's Official Publisher Page for Marc Aronson


Gale, Thomas. (2006) "Marc Aronson."  <http://www.encyclopedia.com/
     topic/Marc_Aronson.aspx> Retrieved 11 April 2012


Google Images used for Book Covers