Each month, Typhani Russo from the Altoona Area Public Library shares her top 10 book picks that center around a specific theme. This month’s theme is “Cultural Commentary.”
Book information and summaries cited from Goodreads.com.
All books listed are available at the Altoona Area Public Library.
CHILDREN’S BOOKS:
Book: Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Synopsis:
At Merryweather High, Melinda is a friendless outcast because she busted a party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party. She was raped by an upperclassman who attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful novel, a heroine delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. Speak demonstrates the importance of speaking up for oneself.
YOUNG ADULT BOOKS:
Book: Violent Ends, by Shaun David Hutchinson
Synopsis:
In a one-of-a-kind collaboration, seventeen of the most recognizable YA writers come together to share the viewpoints of a group of students affected by a school shooting. It took only twenty two minutes for Kirby Matheson to exit his car, march onto the school grounds, enter the gymnasium, and open fire, killing six and injuring five others. But this isn’t a story about recounting that one unforgettable day. This is about how one boy, who had friends, played saxophone in the band, and had never been in trouble before, became a monster capable of entering his school with a loaded gun and firing bullets at his classmates. Each chapter is told from a different victim’s viewpoint, giving insight into who Kirby was and who he’d become.
Book: The Nowhere Girls, by Amy Reed
Synopsis:
Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school. Who are the Nowhere Girls? They’re every girl. But they start with just Grace Salter, Rosina Suarez, and Erin Delillo. When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school. Told in alternating perspectives, this groundbreaking novel is an indictment of rape culture and explores with bold honesty the deepest questions about teen girls.
Book: All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds
Synopsis:
Sidewalk graffiti started it all. Well, no, actually, a lady tripping over Rashad at the store, making him drop a bag of chips, was what started it all. Because it didn’t matter what Rashad said next; that it was an accident, that he wasn’t stealing. The cop just kept pounding him. Over and over, pummeling him into the pavement. So then Rashad, an ROTC kid with mad art skills, was absent again, stuck in a hospital room. Why? Because it looked like he was stealing. And that’s how it started. And that’s what Quinn, a white kid, saw. He saw his best friend’s older brother beating the daylights out of a classmate. At first Quinn doesn’t tell a soul. He’s not even sure he understands it. But when the school and nation start to divide on what happens, blame spreads like wildfire fed by ugly words like “racism” and “police brutality.” Quinn realizes he’s got to understand it, because bystander or not, he’s a part of history. Rashad and Quinn face the unspeakable truth that racism and prejudice didn’t die after the civil rights movement. There’s a future at stake. A future where no one else will have to be absent because of police brutality. They just have to risk everything to change the world. Because that’s how injustice can end.
Book: Tease, by Amanda Maciel
Synopsis:
Provocative, unforgettable, and inspired by real life incidents, Amanda Maciel’s highly acclaimed debut novel Tease is the story of a teenage girl who faces criminal charges for bullying after a classmate commits suicide. With its powerful narrative and strong anti-bullying theme, this coming-of-age story offers insightful views on high school society, toxic friendships, and family relationships. Emma Putnam is dead, and it’s all Sara Wharton’s fault. At least, that’s what everyone seems to think. Sara, along with her best friend and three other classmates, has been criminally charged for the bullying and harassment that led to Emma’s shocking suicide. Now Sara is the one who’s ostracized, already guilty according to her peers, the community, and the media. In the summer before her senior year, in between meetings with lawyers and a court recommended therapist, Sara is forced to reflect on the events that brought her to this moment. And she’ll have to find a way to move forward, even when it feels like her own life is over.
Book: The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas
Synopsis:
Sixteen year old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Everyone wants to know what really went down that night and the only person alive who can answer that is Starr. But what Starr does or does not say could endanger her life.
Book: The Art of Being Normal, by Lisa Williamson
Synopsis:
David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth. David wants to be a girl. On the first day at his new school, Leo Denton has one goal; to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in his class is definitely not part of that plan. When Leo stands up for David in a fight, an unlikely friendship forms. But things are about to get messy. At Eden Park School, secrets have a funny habit of not staying secret for long.
ADULT BOOKS:
Book: The Way I Used to Be, by Amber Smith
Synopsis:
In the tradition of Speak, this extraordinary debut novel shares the unforgettable story of a young woman as she struggles to find strength in the aftermath of an assault. Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes. What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved, she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. Told in four parts, The Way I Used to Be reveals the deep cuts of trauma. It also demonstrates one young woman’s strength as she navigates the disappointment and unbearable pains of adolescence and first heartbreak, while learning to embrace a power of survival she never knew she had hidden within her heart.
READ IT BEFORE YOU SEE IT!
Book: We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
On Netflix and DVD
Synopsis:
Eva never really wanted to be a mother. And certainly not the mother of the unlovable boy who murdered seven of his fellow high school students, a cafeteria worker, and a much adored teacher who tried to befriend him two days before his sixteenth birthday. Now, two years later, it is time to come to terms with her marriage, career, parenthood, and Kevin’s horrific rampage in a series of startlingly direct correspondences with her estranged husband, Franklin. Uneasy with the sacrifices and social demotion of motherhood from the start, Eva fears that her alarming dislike for her own son may be responsible for driving him so nihilistically off the rails.
Book: The 15:17 to Paris: The True Story of a Terrorist, a Train, and Three American Heroes,
by Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone
In theaters February 9, 2018
Synopsis:
On August 21, 2015, Ayoub El-Khazzani boarded train #9364 in Brussels, bound for Paris, with an AK-47, a pistol, a box cutter, and enough ammunition to obliterate every passenger on board. Khazzani wasn’t expecting Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone. But their decision to charge the gunman depended on a lifetime of loyalty, support, and faith. The 15:17 to Paris is an amazing true story of three young men who found the heroic unity and strength inside themselves at the moment when they, and 500 other innocent travelers, needed it most.
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