Module 15: Thirteen Reasons Why

a.       Where to begin? A girl named Hannah Baker has the worst luck or timing or something. Even the smallest things, like a Hot or Not list, has a huge effect on her life. Try as she might, she is unable to form true, lasting friendships and she feels rejected, betrayed and alone each time she tries. I should say that the story begins with Clay and he seems completely taken aback by receiving the package. The reader learns that several people have received and passed this package of thirteen tapes on. Clay is worried and confused as to why he is mentioned as one of the reasons why Hannah took her life. He pushes through each tape with mixed emotions at finding out all the details that led to her death. The reader discovers that he secretly cared for Hannah and he feels guilty that he didn’t do more to create a friendship between them. This book has it all. Alcohol, sneaking out, partying, rape, rejection and voyeurism. Hannah describes everything in detail, even if it is uncomfortable. This book connect seemingly unrelated events to show everyone their role in her downward spiral. No one person helped. After hearing everything, Clay is changed for the better. This glimpse in her life gives him the impulse to speak to a girl he normally avoids. Maybe her life will get better.

b.      Asher, J. (2007). Thirteen reasons why. New York: Razorbill.

c.       This book is so depressing. It totally weighed me down mentally once I finished it. I thought about all of my own experiences in high school and how nothing compared to the experiences described int his book. Even though, it is fiction, these things happen! We get trained on suicide as teachers and how to spot the signs but who really sees what is happening? I am definitely one of those nosy and strict teachers and can quickly spot bullying or tension. If I were in Mr. Porter’s place, could I spot a suicidal teen? I don’t know. It saddens me that Hannah felt so alone that she wanted to take her life. Where were her parents? Why isn’t more emphasis placed on her parents? It’s clear that they were not doing their best to understand their child. In the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter whose fault it is because everyone could have helped. At least thirteen people were directly tied to all the negative things in her life and not one picked up on it.

d.      Thirteen reasons why. (2007). Publishers weekly, 254(40), 55

This uncommonly polished debut opens on a riveting scenario: 13 teenagers in a small town have each been designated to listen, in secret, to a box of audiotapes recorded by their classmate Hannah and mailed on the very day she commits suicide. "I'm about to tell you the story of my life," she says. "More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why." Clay, the narrator, receives the tapes a few weeks after the suicide (each listener must send the box to the next, and Hannah has built in a plan to make sure her posthumous directions are followed), and his initial shock turns to horror as he hears the dead girl implicate his friends and acquaintances in various acts of callousness, cruelty or crime. Asher expertly paces the narrative, splicing Hannah's tale. with Clay's mounting anxiety and fear. Just what has he done? Readers won't be able to pull themselves away until that question gets answered--no matter that the premise is contrived and the plot details can be implausible. The author gets all the characters right, from the popular girl who wants to insure her status to the boy who rapes an unconscious girl at a party where the liquor flows too freely, and the veneer of authenticity suffices to hide the story's flaws. Asher knows how to entertain an audience; this book will leave readers eager to see what he does next. Ages 13-up. (Oct.)

e.       This book is definitely more for high school level students. It contains very serious subject matter that must be talked about, so I would like to hold a discussion online with Lefora. This way no one feels uncomfortable expressing their opinion of the book. 

Module 14: The Arrow Finds Its Mark

a.       This book is a collection of found poems from a variety of sources. The introduction is very important because it explains the reason this book came about.  Poem sources range from twitter, signs, advertisements, titles, captions, and more. The poems vary from acrostic to free verse to haiku. Each poem is unique and artfully illustrated.

b.      Heard, G. (2012). The arrow finds its mark: A book of found poems. New York: Roaring Book Press.  

c.       The idea behind this book is neat and unusual. I know poetry is everything the author wants it to be but I personally did not quite get most of the poems. I liked seeing where they were found, but I don’t think that all of them really scream poetry to me. Again, that is justs my limited exposure to poems. I thought it was interesting to find so much poetry in the most unlikely places, like twitter or bus signs.

d.      Keaise, S. M. (2012). The arrow finds its mark: A book of found poems. Library Media Connection, 30(6), 84.

Poetry, vision, and creativity are the key to the works selected and used in this innovative children's book. These insightful poets created poems from emails, blogs, twitter, face book, and dictionaries. By simply changing a line break or constructing special titles, poets used various forms of poetry from haiku to acrostic. The b&w illustrations bring life to the nontraditional poems. Each poem is accompanied by the person who found it and the source of where they found it. Poetry lovers will not be able to put this book down, just out of curiosity alone.

e.       I would use this book to make a book trailer. I would like to highlight it so that students can check it out. A follow up activity that would like to do is ask students to find poems throughout the campus and submit them to me to publish on our website. 

Module 13: The Adventures of Daniel Boom AKA Loud Boy

a.       Daniel Boom is a young boy who suffers from a loud voice. Daniel has to practice using a lower volume otherwise he shatters glass all around him. As they are going through their semi-normal lives, his mother gets a promotion that requires them to move to Stillville. The kids are not happy about it and get even more riled up when they get a weird warning from Uncle Stanley. His parents don’t believe Stanley and uproot the family to Stillville. The new town seems a bit odd and Daniel doesn’t seem to fit in and is assigned detention on his birthday on Saturday. The night before he tosses and turns while hearing voices. His little sister wakes up too and claims to hear them as well. The find the source of the voices in the basement of the house. Even though they alert their parents, they are quickly dismissed ad Daniel is sent to detention. While at detention, he meets other kids who seem to get in a lot of trouble. Together, they realize they have a lot in common and put pieces together and realize they need to warn their families. After several twists and turns, the kids are kidnapped by the evil Mastermind Old Fogey and have to find a way to escape him. His goal is to make the entire world silent and he manages to make that happen. As with all superkid stories, they manage to get away from him and he is captured by the police. Unfortunately, his evil friends still plan on making their plans a reality.

b.      Steinberg, D. J. (2008). The adventures of Daniel boom aka loud boy. New York: Penguin Group.

c.       I didn’t expect to like this book because I looked down on graphic novels as not real reading. I was wrong. This story is not just pictures with some thought bubbles. The story line is your typical kids vs. bad guys theme with the kid prevailing over all. The illustrations provide clues to the reader that evil henchmen are lurking about throughout the story. The ending entices the reader to pick up the next novel in the series. Overall, I was happy with what I read in this book. I would recommend it to students who enjoy graphic novels.

d.      SOUND OFF!: The Adventures of daniel boom aka loud boy, Book 1. (2008). Kirkus Reviews, 76(1), 49.

In this nearly all-dialogue series-opener, a quintet of young superheroes with unusually kidlike powers squares off against a noise-hating mad scientist. Despite continual efforts to keep it down, Daniel is cursed with such loud pipes that no window or water glass is safe in his presence. This earns him a quick detention in his new school, where he meets three fellow fifth-graders with their own exaggerated abilities to annoy: Rex Rodriguez instantly breaks anything he touches; Violet Fitz can produce world-class tantrums; and Sid Down raises hyperactivity to high art. As it turns out, all four were test subjects as newborns, exposed to a defective "Behavio-Ray" that was supposed to make them permanently docile but had the opposite effect. Now the ray's developer, Otis "Old Fogey" Fogelman, is back with an improved product, and plans to try it out on the entire planet--starting with his first batch of failures. Joined by Daniel's babbling little sister Jeannie S. (who lives up to her name), the young folk do brisk battle in brightly colored, easy-to-"read" cartoon frames, win a victory and by the end have not only cool new names like "Tantrum Girl" and "Destructo Kid," but even a clubhouse. Stay tuned for further world-saving. (Graphic fiction. 8-10)

e.       I would try to create a mini-graphic novel with students. I could divide the class into groups and give each group a stack of plain white note cards. They could create a story set in the library and glue their cards in the correct sequence on a poster board. I could display their mini-stories in the library along with a display of available graphic novels.