Blue Spruce Award winner

 The Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult book award has been facilitating teen nominations and selection of teens' favorite books since 1985. This is the last year for the award in its present iteration, however, another group may be creating a similar teen book award in the near future.  This year's winner, Allies by Alan Gratz, is a fictionalized account of D-Day, which weaves together individual experiences from six different operations in settings across Europe.  The narrative covers a sea invasion, French citizens and Resistance Fighters on land, and soldiers arriving by air, but focuses repeatedly on Dee, a German fighting on the American side and hiding his identity from his best friend Sid, a Jewish American soldier. The account is historically accurate, but covers a very diverse cast of main characters.  In the end all the stories come together showing that it took a great deal of cooperation to defeat the Nazis in WWII.  Gratz has a new novel coming out this month, Ground Zero which is a dual tale taking place at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and in battle torn Afghanistan on September 11, 2019. 

This month I am going to review new books by three past winners of the Blue Spruce Award. Neal Shusterman won the 2019 award for Scythe, the first book in a series about controlling population in a futuristic society where death by natural causes has been eliminated.  His new book Game Changer, is set in the multiverse and takes on issues of racism, classism, misogyny and homophobia. Angie Thomas was the 2018 winner for The Hate You Give, which is about the fatal shooting of a black teen by a police officer. She published On the Come Up about an aspiring female rapper in 2019. Marissa Meyer was the 2015 winner for Cinder, the first in the Lunar Chronicles series that reimagines Cinderella as a cyborg. She has written a new book about a girl who has the ability to surreptitiously punish wrong doers in Instant Karma.

Game Changer, set in the multiverse, introduces linebacker  Ash Bowman, who gets thrown into a new world every time he suffers a hard tackle. As he travels though various "Elsewheres," he experiences segregation, being gay, being female and various levels of family wealth.  He is the "chosen one," navigating different realities, trying to change things for the better with each shift. His relationships with his family (mom, brother and professional football player father), the team quarterback and the girlfriend he abuses, his black best friend and his sister and Ash's gay math tutor, serve as foils for his exploration of racism, homophobia, misogyny and classism.  Ash's changes in perspective prompt him to develop a greater sense of empathy and urgency regarding the suffering of others.  As I said in my August blog, the multiverse is a popular topic in new YA novels, and Shusterman's new novel is a strong addition to the lexicon.

In On the Come Up Bri is aspiring rapper who is following in her late father's footsteps. She records "On the Come Up" to protest the assault she endured at the hands of white security guards at her high school and the racial profiling that goes on there.  The song goes viral, and Bri hopes to get a recording contract and help lift her family out of poverty, but her mother and brother worry.  The song espouses violence which really isn't who Bri is, and some listeners paint her as a violence inciting black girl. Tension mounts as Bri's mother loses her job, and Bri's beloved aunt and  musical mentor goes to jail for dealing drugs.  Her late father's manager promises fame and wealth - at a price.  She must agree to sing songs she hasn't written that promote the idea that she is a tough girl from the hood.  Bri must decide if she wants to sell her identity for success. Her thoughts and lyrics permeate the narrative, speaking truth to power. Angie Thomas, who was an aspiring rapper herself, paints a vivid picture of the challenges kids face when trying to escape a life of poverty and oppression. Thomas's latest book Concrete Rose which came out January 12th is a prequel to The Hate You Give. It tells the story of Maverick Carter, Starr's father, as he navigates fatherhood, gang life and family loyalty.

In Instant Karma judgmental overachiever Prudence Daniels finds herself with the ability to cast instant karma on people around her.  She is thrilled to punish everyone from vandals to mean girls, but the one person she can't seem to impact is her slacker lab partner Quint Erickson.  Hoping to get a redo on their joint lab project on which they received a C, she agrees to volunteer at the rescue center for local sea animals, where he works.  As she begins to uncover the truth about environmental hazards, she also discovers Quint is more noble than she ever imagined. The punishments continually backfire on her, and Pru slowly realizes that good and bad are not so clear. This enemies to lovers rom com is a fun beach read, with the bonus of a informative look at animal rescue centers. 

Social Awareness: The Hate U Give, The Unlikelies, and Love and First Sight

According to Robert Selman,  past chair of Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Human Development and Psychology department, “Good children's literature not only raises moral dilemmas, but also generates the feelings that are associated with situations where moral conflict and confusion exists.” He suggests that through reading about social conflict students can vicariously experience the resolution of problem situations. This month I will review three very different books that explore situations that their main characters navigate, giving readers a chance to empathize with people struggling with a variety of problems.   The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas focuses on an African American girl, who witnesses an unprovoked police shooting.  The Unlikelies by Cary Firestone introduces a diverse group of "Hometown Heroes" who begin a movement attacking bullying.  Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist deals with the problems a blind boy deals with when he is mainstreamed into a public high school.  

Starr Carter, the main character in The Hate U Give, lives in a poor black urban neighborhood, but attends a suburban prep school where she plays basketball and has a white boyfriend.  She successfully navigates these two very different realities until the night she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed friend Khalil, when they are driving home from a neighborhood party. Although her parents want her to stay out of the news, she is challenged to come forward about the injustices following the event.  Khalil is painted as a drug dealing thug and the officer is not charged.  Starr, who has known Khalil since childhood, realizes she owes it to him to speak out, even if it endangers her family.  This examination of the complexities of the race issues in America is beautifully written and takes a topic that is very current and examines it on a very personal level.  An in-the-works movie adaptation further confirms that this is an important book that teens will want to read.

In The Unlikelies Sadie is brutally attacked while trying to save a baby in the back seat of her drunk father's car. A video of the rescue goes viral and Sadie becomes an unlikely hero. At a local luncheon recognizing her and other local teens' heroics, she meets a new group of do-gooder friends.  They decide to begin a movement attacking "internet trolls and bullies" and championing their targets.  Things get more serious when they go after a heroin dealer in the hopes of helping an addicted friend.  The diverse group of homegrown heroes (Haitian, Salvadoran, white and mixed race teens) will charm readers and inspire them to attempt to make the world a better place, as well as help them confront their own issues with prejudice, loyalty and friendship. 

In Love and First Sight Will Porter, who has been blind since birth, decides he wants to be mainstreamed at a new high school and learn to live in the sighted world.  Told exclusively from Will's point of view, the reader navigates the challenges with him as he is bullied, develops friendships and ultimately falls in love.  When he is given the opportunity to undergo a dangerous surgical procedure that may restore his sight, he is conflicted, but proceeds.  The depiction of the recovery process is heart-wrenching in its detail and leads the reader to understand Will may be better off blind.  The slow painful process and uncertainties about his recovery, as well as his disorientation as his sight returns, are not something one would expect to read about in a YA novel.  Any time a seemingly simple decision is revealed to be anything but, it gives readers an opportunity to think about what they would do in the main character's place. The author, Josh Sundquist, (We Should Hang Out Sometime) is a ParaOlympian and motivational speaker, who is no stranger to adversity.  He survived cancer and the amputation of his leg at age thirteen and is the first person to be named to the US Paralympian Ski Team and the US Amputee Soccer Team.