Pairing Music with YA lit: “Under Pressure” edition

September:  The summer heat gives way to sweater mornings, t-shirt afternoons, and hoodie evenings.  The leaves begin to turn into the firey oranges, reds, and yellows that might only last for a few weeks, or if we’re lucky, a whole month before the snow sets in (at least in my part of the country).  It’s the beginning of a new season and a new school year, which for many high school seniors is the start of the college application process; of finding a school that will soon become home.  Essays.  Scholarship applications.  Dreaded “We regret to inform you…” letters.  Acceptance packets.  Safety schools.  Major declarations.  And, often, LOTS of pressure from friends, parents, or even themselves.  Luckily, there are some great books to help us all through this stressful time.  So here are some of my favorite off-to-college novels, paired with music that connects to each one.  Of course, not all of us hear music the same way, just as not all of us see the books we read the same way, so this is my interpretation–”Under Pressure” style.

 

  ill meet you thereI’ll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios (2015)

Summary: Skylar is finally fulfilling her dream of getting out of Creek View.  She has a full scholarship to art school and is ready to take off to San Francisco, ready to leave behind the small town she grew up in.  She just has to get through the summer.  But after graduation, Skylar’s mother is a downhill slide (again) after losing her job, and Skylar feels the need to stay and take care of her.  And then there is Josh.  He used to be a giant jerk, a player, kind of a douchebag, but coming home from Afghanistan has changed him.  Both physically as he lost his leg, and mentally, as he is dealing with the aftermath of war.  Throughout the summer, Skylar and Josh grow together, becoming friends instead of work acquaintances, and falling in love one day at a time. Skylar is left wondering if it’s not only her mother she feels compelled to stay for, but Josh as well.   

Musical pairings:  There are a lot of artists referenced in “I’ll Meet You There”, providing it’s own soundtrack.  But as I read this book, there are two songs that immediately stuck out to me:  Dan Black’s “Symphonies” featuring Kid Cudi and “Sometimes” by Sound of Guns.  I connected “Symphonies” to Skylar to describe her desire to leave Creek View (Gimme, gimme, symphonies/Gimme more than the life I see), but also connected it to how she feels different than the other girls in her town, how she knows she is meant to do more with her life than work at the Paradise motel (I live, I live, I live, I live for symphonies/I know that there’s some place just right for me). “Sometimes” is the song that reminds me of Josh as he is trying to find his place back in Creek View, at first trying to be the same Josh he was before he joined the Marines, before he lost his leg (When your mind aches, pupils dilate/Give me some alcohol to stop me growing older).  The same Josh that knows his place is in the small town (Oh oh oh, I was born here and I’ll die here), and knows everything about his neighbors (Oh oh oh, see for miles and miles around here, Oh oh oh, every violence, every silence).  
Continue reading Pairing Music with YA lit: “Under Pressure” edition

YA Lit Dream Interpretation: Spiders

In your dream everything seems normal, its not a nightmare at all.  Then something touches your arm.  You brush it away but still persists.  Your concentration is broken so you look for the source of your distraction.  To your horror you see a giant spider.  No matter how you try you cannot brush it off your clothes. 

In a panic you wake up.  Terrified and feeling a bit like Ron Weasley who is equally terrified of spiders, you wonder “Why spiders? Why couldn’t it be “Follow the butterflies?” (IMDB)   Freud might have a lot of explanations for your dream.  But a better interpretation is: you need fiction to solve your nightmarish concerns.  No need to psychoanalyze when some reader’s advisory  has the cure.

To see a spider in your dream indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation. Or perhaps you want to keep your distance and stay away from an alluring and tempting situation. (DreamMoods)

While all dreams have positive and negative connotations, this dream interpretation will focus on the good outcomes of seeing a spider in your dreams.  Spiders can represent going against the popular crowd and finding your own way.  These YA novels will inspire you reject disruptive influences in your life by thinking about who your friends really are.

  • Conversion by Katherine Howe – Strangely similar illnesses strike the students at St. Joa18667792n’s
    Academy in Danvers, Massachusetts as the disease that sicked girls in Salem Village three centuries ago.  Colleen Rowly is determined not to panic as the symptoms spread among other students and several of her friends.  While accusations fly and talk show hosts salivate over such a juicy story, only Colleen sees the connection between to the Arthur Miller play, The Crucible.  Can Colleen find the cause of the illness before she becomes sick as well?

 

  • Shelter by Harlan Coben – After tragic events tear Mickey Bolitar away from his parents, he is shelterforced to live with his estranged Uncle Myron.  After switching high schools, Mickey finds both friends and enemies, but when his new new girlfriend, Ashley, vanishes, he follows her trail into a seedy underworld that reveals she is not what she seems to be.  Other mysteries wait to be unraveled as Mickey’s dad may not be dead.  Secrets from the Bat Lady and his mother’s drug addiction create a reality of suspicion and intrigue for Mickey to navigate solo.

Continue reading YA Lit Dream Interpretation: Spiders

Narrators You Love to Hate in YA Lit

upauthors.com
upauthors.com

Unreliable, whiney, un-likable, liars—we’ve all read characters like this!  I love to read a good book with a “bad” (and/or unreliable) narrator. This kind of flawed storyteller reaches to the reader and asks us to question, look deeper, and ponder truth and lies. It is a sign of an excellent author who can manipulate you to love the book and hate the character. Skilled writers make the reader believe the lies and then accept the truth.

Here are some favorite examples of protagonists I love to hate.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

  • In this year’s Printz Award recipient I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson twins Noah and Jude lie to each other, lie to their parents, and lie to themselves (and by extension to us: the reader). With all the lies it’s no wonder there was so much to reveal in this tale. The sneakiness and bad treatment of each other made me distinctly dislike them. But Nelson also juxtaposed the twins’ nastiness with descriptions of how deeply they love each other.
  • Cadence from We Were Liars by E. Lockhart (2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults). Here is what I consider to be a likeable character and one whom I really felt for. But what if I knew the truth of what really happened that summer at the beginning of this book? Would I still have felt so sympathetic towards Cady?
  • Froi and Quintana from Melina Marchetta’s Lumatere Chronicles. Only Melina Marchetta (Printz Award winner) could take a predatory lowlife like Froi was when we first met him in Finnikin of the Rock (2011 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults) and turn him around so distinctly then lead him to star in his own story. Froi is redeemed in Finnikin of the Rock; grows in Froi of the Exiles, and become a hero in Quintana of Charyn. In the second installment of the Lumatere Chronicles Marchetta also introduces Quintana: one of the grossest characters I have ever imagined in a book and quickly made me love her. Quintana is prickly, deranged, damaged, paranoid, abused, and abusive. But she becomes a hero too—fiercely protective and thoroughly decent.

Continue reading Narrators You Love to Hate in YA Lit

Remixing The Classics: Young Adult Novels Inspired By Classic Literature

DJ at Cafe de moc eyalnow flickr
Image courtesy of Flickr user eyalnow

From the multiple big and small screen Sherlock Holmes adaptations to the Web sensation The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ rewriting of Pride & Prejudice for the YouTube era, entertainment media continue to look to well-known literature for inspiration.  In the world of young adult literature, re-imagining familiar stories in contemporary settings or with unique twists has become quite a tradition. Throughout 2012 and 2013, Hub bloggers Jessica Pryde and Jessica Miller traced this very trend in their series “From Classic To Contemporary,” covering a wide range of re-imagined classics in both young adult literature and film.  Additionally, a number of new titles remixing classic novels or plays have appeared on the scene in just the past year.  As the school year gains momentum and students study such classics, it seems only appropriate that we highlight a few of their young adult lit remixes.

conversionConversion – Katherine Howe  St. Joan’s Academy is one of the top high schools in Danvers, MA.  Within its hallowed walls, teenage girls battle for valedictorian, labor over applications to the best colleges in the country, attempt to sort out first relationships, and manage shifting friendships & high parental expectations. Senior Colleen Rowley and her friends knew they had a lot to balance but they were keeping it together–or so they thought.  Then the seemingly flawless Clara Rutherford is overcome by uncontrollable tics in the middle of homeroom and within hours, the strange symptoms have spread to her friends.  Suddenly, St. Joan’s becomes into a media circus as more students become ill and everyone fails to come up with an explanation or a cure.  But only Colleen, who has continued to work on her extra credit project researching The Crucible,  realizes that Danvers used to be called Salem Village and another group of girls was once at the epicenter of a similar episode a few centuries ago.

This modernization of Arthur Miller’s play interweaves the events unfolding at St. Joan’s with a fresh perspective on the witch hunt hysteria in historical Salem. Continue reading Remixing The Classics: Young Adult Novels Inspired By Classic Literature