Double Dutch by Sharon M. Draper

Draper , Sharon M. Double Dutch . New York: Aladdin Paperbacks, 2002. Print. 

Double Dutch is about an eighth grader named Delia. She is an African American girl living in present day. Cincinnati, Ohio. She competes on a double dutch team in the World Championships with her friends Yolanda and Charlene. Their friend Randy is the waterboy for the team. During school, they are told that they might have to pass a standardized test in order to be on the team. Everyone is fine with this except for Delia. Why? Delia has a secret that no one except her best friend Yolanda knows, she can't read. She can pick out some words, memorized her parents' signatures, and learned to get the movie versions of books they read in class. Still, it will cause some trouble. Randy is also having troubles. His dad is a truck driver and his mom left them a couple of years prior. Randy is often left alone to care for himself. Usually his dad is back within a certain period of time, but now he has been gone for weeks and still hasn't called. Randy has to sell the VCR and other appliances to pay the rent and buy food, something no boy should have to go through. Although he is having troubles, he later tells the coach what is going on and stays with him for a while. The Tolliver twins are two boys the group goes to school with. Titan and Tabu Tolliver, and they are as sweet as their names lead you to believe. People say that these two are evil, that they kill small animals and terrorize their mother for fun. After an exciting double dutch competition, Delia sees a paper with a picture of Randy's dad on it. Since she can't read, she doesn't tell Randy. Also, she assumes her already knows what it is about. Randy finds it and finds out Delia knew and did not tell him about it. After they fight, secrets come out and the guilty Delia runs out of the gym. In the end, everyone knows Delia's secret and Randy's dad turns out to be okay. The major themes in this novel is friendship and the idea that secrets get you into trouble. If someone had known and helped Delia deal with her secret, she wouldn't have hid the fact she saw the flyer from Randy. Also, Randy would've been in a lot safer place if he would have told an adult about his living situation earlier.
In John Noell Moore's book Interpreting Young Adult Literature: Literary Theory in the Secondary Classroom, Moore describes black anesthetics and signifying in books. Everyone that is not in the primary culture has something called a double consciousness. Moore states, " Historically, black Americans have felt a dual identity, the 'twoness' that Dubois describes in the epigraph" (138). This is also seen in Draper's novel. Even though it is set in an African American community, there are characters that show a double consciousness in other areas. Delia cannot read and she is in the eighth grade. The only person who knows is her best friend. To get by in school, she looks up movies of books and learns little words like "the" and "boy". She has to be careful not to read in public or make anyone aware that she cannot read. Randy has no mother, she left a couple of years previously to where the book starts. He has to keep this in mind. During a game of "Yo Mama" jokes, Yolanda says to Randy,"At least I got a mama!" (7). He always has to remember that he is in a single parent household. Also, the jokes are a part of signifying. This is the exchange of boasts or insults as a game or ritual.
In Sharon Stringer's Conflict and Connection: The Psychology of Young Adult Literature, Stringer looks at how YAL interprets friendships. Stringer says," Psychological studies describe how we often attract friends who are similar to us in values, attitudes, and demographic characteristics... Our friends also reflect our inner world. Through the comfort and solace that surface in close relationships, adolescents as well as adults can derive rich learning experiences from their friends" (31).  Friendships are important in this book. Even the evil Tolliver twins become friends with Yolanda after the storm because they find something in common, the twins have always liked her. Randy and Delia deal with the choice of threatening their friendship or threatening their secrets. 

More books by Sharon M. Draper:

• Tears of a Tiger (Simon and Schuster, 1994)
• Forged by Fire (Simon and Schuster, 1997)
• Darkness Before Dawn (Simon and Schuster, 2001)
• Romiette and Julio (Simon and Schuster, 1999)
• Double Dutch (Simon and Schuster, 2002)
• The Battle of Jericho (Simon and Schuster, 2003)
• Copper Sun (Simon and Schuster, 2006)
• November Blues (Simon and Schuster, 2007)
• Just Another Hero (Simon and Schuster, 2009)
• Out of My Mind (Simon and Schuster, 2010)
• Fire from the Rock (Dutton, 2007)
• We Beat the Street (Dutton, 2005)
• Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs: The Buried Bones Mystery
  • Ziggy #2: Lost in the Tunnel of Time
  • Ziggy #3: Shadows of Caesar's Creek
  • Ziggy #4: The Space Mission Adventure
  • Ziggy #5: The Backyard Zoo Adventure 
  • Ziggy #6: Stars and Sparks on Stage (Simon and Schuster, 12965
• Sassy #1: Little Sister is Not my Name (Scholastic, 2009)
  • Sassy #2: The Birthday Storm (Scholastic, 2009)
  • Sassy #3: The Silver Secret (Scholastic, 2010)
  • Sassy #4: The Dazzle Disaster Dinner Party (Scholastic, 2010)
• Teaching from the Heart (Heinemann, 1999)
• Not Quite Burned Out, But Crispy around the Edges (Heinemann, 2001)
• Panic (Simon and Schuster, 2013)

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Funke, Cornelia. Inkheart. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2007. Print.

Inkheart book trailer

This book is about a 12 year old girl named Meggie. Meggie lives with her book doctor father, Mo, in a small European farmhouse. There is one thing Meggie loves almost as much as her Mo, books. Meggie lives, breathes, and eats books. Since her father is a book doctor and a lover of books, Meggie has learned to take care of books and well as read them all the time. She even sleeps with books under her pillow. As perfect and sweet as their life may look, life with Meggie and Mo is not all that it seems. One night, Meggie sees a strange man looking into her bedroom window from a distance. She calls for Mo and, to Meggie's surprise, he lets this stranger inside. This stranger, who is identified as Dustfinger, tells Mo that Capricorn knows where Mo is and is coming for him and the book. Meggie wonders what on earth could be going on. Who are they talking about? What is so special about this book?
In this book, there are some important themes. One of the big themes is family is always there for you. At the end when Meggie cannot kill Capricorn, Mo steps in and helps her read those final words. Also, throughout the book, either Meggie or Mo get kidnapped by Capricorn. Every time it happens, they are each determined to save the other. Another theme is friendship, all of Meggie's and Mo's friends all come to help in some sort of way every time they need help. Another important theme is secrets. Throughout the book, everyone has a secret and lies to keep that secret hidden. They may be keeping these secrets for good or bad reasons, but they do get found out in the end.

According to John Noell Moore in his Interpreting Young Adult Literature: Literary Theory in the Secondary Classroom, he talks about how archetypes are used in young adult literature. In Inkheart, the hero archetype is used. At first glance, you would think that Mo would be the hero of the story with Meggie as a sidekick. Looking at Joseph Campbell's monomyth and hero archetype, you will see that Meggie, not Mo, is the hero in this story. The pattern of the monomyth has 17 stages in total, but is broken up into three parts. Part 1, Departure, moves through five stages: (1) The Call to Adventure, (2) Refusal of the Call, (3) Supernatural Aid, (4) The Crossing of the First Threshold, and (5) The Belly of the Whale. In Part 2, Initiation, the pattern includes six stages: (1) The Road of Trials, (2) The Meeting with the Goddess, (3) Woman as Temptress, (4) Atonement with the Father, (5) Apotheosis, and (6) The Ultimate Boon. The final phase of the cycle, part 3 or Return, contains six stages as well: (1) Refusal of the Return, (2) The Magic Flight, (3) Rescue from Without, (4) The Crossing of the Return Threshold, (5) Master of the Two Worlds, and (6) Freedom to Live. (Moore, 36). Looking at the the first part, we see that Meggie hits every stage in order and continues to do so throughout the book. The Call to Adventure is when Dustfinger comes to Mo and Meggie is trying to figure out what is going on. The Refusal of the Call is more of not being able to take the call. Her father refuses to let her know anything and even plans to let her stay at her Aunt Elinor's until Mo figures out what to do. Supernatural Aid is Dustfinger. He is the reluctant helper and he is not of Earth. The Crossing of the First Threshold is when Meggie first enters Capricorn's village. The Belly of the Whale is when she is first captured by Capricorn when trying to find her father. In relation to literature, the significance to archetypes is, "creating myths answers a basic human need and that creating myths is inherent in our thinking process" and  "creates a matrix from which literature emerges historically and psychologically" (Moore, 50). This, in turn, creates the themes, characters , and images that are used today. The same hero monomyth that is used on the Classic Greek and Roman myths can be used on today's young adult literature characters such as 12 year old Meggie.

Other Books by Cornelia Funke:
Novels
    The Thief Lord
    Dragon Rider
    When Santa Fell to Earth
    Igraine the Brave
    Saving Mississippi
    Ghost Knight

MirrorWorld Novels
    Reckless
    Fearless

Inkheart trilogy
    Inkheart
    Inkspell
    Inkdeath

Ghosthunters
    Ghosthunters and the Incredibly Revolting Ghost
    Ghosthunters and the Gruesome Invincible Lightning Ghost
    Ghosthunters and the Totally Moldy Baroness!
    Ghosthunters and the Muddy Monster of Doom!

Wild Chicks
  Die Wilden Hühner
  Die Wilden Hühner auf Klassenfahrt
  Die Wilden Hühner — Fuchsalarm
  Die Wilden Hühner und das Glück der Erde
  Die Wilden Hühner und die Liebe
  Die Wilden Hühner — gestohlene Geheimnisse CD-ROM
Picture books
 The Princess Knight
  Pirate Girl
  The Wildest Brother
  Princess Pigsty

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron - A lesson of how books can unfold deep mysteries.

"Once, in my father's bookshop, I heard a regular customer sat that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later-- no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget-- we will return" (8). These words were very true to young Daniel. 

The Shadow of the Wind is a novel by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This book is set in Spain in 1945 through 1955, the years following World War II and the Civil War in Spain. The story follows a ten year old boy named Daniel, which spans through his teen years. Daniel's father, a widower and bookseller, decides to share a marvelous secret and takes his son to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books. This place is described as being older than the city of Barcelona; no one really knows the origins. The one thing they do know is when you go into the Cemetery of Forgotten Books; you must find a book and become its guardian. Young Daniel comes across a book he has never heard of: The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax. For some reason, Daniel feels pulled by the book. He says that the book chose him, not the other way around. When he comes home, he begins reading the book by the unheard of author. He is enthralled by the book. He stays awake all night reading his beloved book. When he finishes the book, he wants to know more about the author, Julian Carax, and perhaps find more books by him. That is when he meets Don Gustavo Barcelo who wills open doors to for Daniel to learn about Carax. What Daniel learns is that there is someone who is stealing and burning the remaining copies of all of Carax's books. For four years, Daniel becomes close to Don Gustavo and his niece, Clara. Clara, also Daniel's first crush, is blind and asks Daniel to read to her. After several years, Daniel keeps searching for Carax's books and meets many interesting people and new friends. One is Fermin Romero de Torres, a beggar who is rescued off the streets by Daniel and his father. He starts working in the bookstore and becomes close friends with Daniel. The others are Tomas Aguilar, the childhood best friend, and Beatriz, Tomas' sister. According to Sharon A. Stringer in Conflict and Connection, " Another stereotype is that peer groups overshadow parents; guidance during adolescence. Research indicates that friends do not usurp parents' impact on teenagers. Instead, mothers, fathers, and peers have complementary influences on young adults" (30). She goes on to say that parents influence decisions dealing with education, careers, and morality. Peers impact choices regarding current social issues. This does not disregard Daniel. His father does influence him on morality; we see that in the way they treat Fermin. Also, Daniel works in the bookshop with his father and you assume Daniel will follow in his father's footsteps. Fermin and Tomas, influence him with current issues like movies, actresses, and girlfriends.  We follow Daniel as he grows into a young man and learns more about this mysterious Julian Carax and his own beloved city of Barcelona. This is a story of mystery, discovery, and doomed love. All because of a single book a young boy found abandoned under the city of Barcelona, Spain.

Welcome!

Welcome all to my blog! I am a Secondary Education and English/Language Arts major at UAB. For my Young Adult Lit class, I am here to post things related to Young Adult Lit. Please feel free to post any ideas about this subject! I am a future teacher so I will take all the help I can get :) Thanks for visiting!