In 2017 I was introduced to the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers (GPBA) organization and I challenged myself to read 20 Young Adult books in 9 weeks. I would like to share the list of books I read during my 9 week personal challenge and tell you a little about the books that really stood out to me.
“I Hunt Killers” by Barry Lyga “Shattering Glass” by Gail Giles “What Comes After” by Steve Watkins “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher “Scarlett Epstien Hates It Here” by Anna Breslaw “Me, Him, Them and It” by Caela Carter
“Fake ID” by Lamar Giles “True Letters From A Fictional Life” by Kenneth Logan
“Girls Like Us” by Gail Giles
“Dan Vs Nature” by Don Calame “Code Of Honor” by Alan Gratz
“All American Boys” by Jason Reynolds
“The First Part Last” by Angela Johnson
“Winger” by Andrew Smith
“The Anatomical Shape Of A Heart” by Jenn Bennett
“This Savage Song” by Victoria Schwab
“What Light” by Jay Asher
“Right Behind You” by Gail Giles
“Dumplin” by Julie Murphy
“I’ll Meet You There” by Heather Demetrios
DUMPLIN’
This book is the winner of the GPBA for that year and I feel it truly deserved to win the title.
Quotes I love from this book:
"My first kiss. It's the fastest thing that lasts forever."
"Maybe 'cause you don't always have to win a pageant to wear a crown."
"... good friendships are durable. They're meant to survive the gaps and growing pains."
"He's one crazy dude. I feel like he's either going to murder everyone or be, like, a movie star. There's no in between for that guy."
"Beautiful, he says. Fat, I think. But can't I be both at the same time?"
Willowdean is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters, flawed but still strong, even as she tries to navigate the impossible teen-ness of her high school life while finding and defining herself. This book has been a fabulous journey of a girl's self-discovery of her worth and strength while she learns to open up and let other people into her life because they appreciate and love her for who she is and not for what she isn't.
We don't have to change ourselves to accept ourselves, and that realization is a freeing and wonderful thing.
Empowering with a powerful message. I loved this book.
RIGHT BEHIND YOU
I loved this story and would *highly* recommend this book to all of my readers because it has little lessons for all of us to gain insight into the darker things we all hold in our hearts.
I became invested in this story early on because the author tackled a heavily dramatic story with delicacy. She took a heinous, and ultimately fatal, act committed by a child against another child and made me care about the perpetrator and his rehabilitation and return to living a public life. This story is his journey through the aftermath and how he finally came to terms *for himself*, even in the face of hate and judgement he knew he would receive from others if they knew his truth. This entire story, which begins at the end, is him having the courage and fortitude to lay himself bare and share all his dark, ugly truths .... in hopes of leaving behind who he was and asking for acceptance of the person he has become.
Quotes:
Sam; “If I beat myself up about the bad stuff I did, I'm ignoring that I was strong enough to stop being that person. I think what I'm doing with my life now is a lot more important than what I did when I was a stupid kid.”
Kip/Wade; “I figured out that I can't forget. I can't really forgive. But I can live. Live with it. Like you live with a scar or a limp or whatever. You always know it's there. It reminds you never to let yourself do anything so stupid and horrible and wrong again. I step out of my rut, step again, and keep stepping.”
ALL AMERICAN BOYS
At the halfway mark, this book had me HOOKED and this author became one of my all-time favorites.
Premise of social commentary regarding racism, activism and police brutality.
This book is changing how I view the world, making me see I am part of the larger picture of what I see regularly on the news and how racism affects so many more lives than just those who are minorities or underprivileged. The book is told from the alternating POV of the two major characters, and written by two authors whom I believe are writing each perspective respectively.
As of now, one of the characters is approaching a major change in how he views and handles the situation (observer) he found himself in. I do not know which direction he will go, but my hope is that he "does the right thing and speaks up" - even though knowing that doing so could harm people he has known and loved since childhood.
The character *did* do the right thing and I just about cheered as I read his conviction to step forward and stand for what is right!
This book drew awareness to an issue I feel is generally avoided and not spoken about by the people who can affect the most positive change. Ignoring this issue will not improve these situations and in this regard, I feel the social protest in the story can help people see beyond "they’re protesting again" and the outsiders who are rioting and looting to what the true message is; we need peaceful, safe and fear-free interaction between the public and officers who do not have prejudice of criminal activity based on how a person looks.
GIRLS LIKE US This book grew on me slowly. It is told in two perspectives and both characters speak "in dialect", which was difficult at first, but after a few pages, it helped me see further into how uneducated, through no fault of their own, these girls were. Through the story, I was able to see friendship and understanding grow. At first, through a forced closeness, then shared tragedy and eventually blossoming into true friendship and family. Highly recommend this book to help shatter stereotypes of Special Education people.
Heidi Y.