Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

Learning how to survive in an abusive relationship with your own mother while taking care of two younger siblings is everything Matt is trying to do.

General Information:

Age Range: 12 and up
Price: $8.99
Grade Level: 2 – 12
Lexile Measure: 0660
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Speak; Reprint edition (March 13, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0142410713
ISBN-13: 978-0142410714

Plot:

Rules of Survival is a story that is told through the eyes of an older teen boy named Matt in the prose of a letter being written for his youngest sister. He is telling her the story of their childhood and how he finally got himself, Emma (youngest sister) and Callie (other sister) away from their biological mother after repeated abuse and neglect on her behalf. The story explains everything Matt had to do and go through in trying to get himself and his siblings to safety. A lot of it revolves around a man named Murdoch who Matt and Callie saw defending a little boy at a supermarket when they were younger. Eventually they found this man and he ended up dating their mom for awhile until he realized there was something off about Nikki. Eventually with the help of Murdock, his Aunt Bobbie, and his biological father Ben, they managed to accomplish getting everyone away safely from Nikki who now is living out the rest of her life and keeping in touch with everyone through the random postcard which still blames Murdoch and Matt for everything that happened to her.

Reading and Interest Level:

This book is marketed for ages 15 and up and for grades 10th-12th though the writing style is not overly difficult and most of the controversial material is not graphically shown or described. This leads me to want to increase the age range in order to include all of high school as it is relatively tame for a controversial book.

Evaluation:

Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin is an older YA novel, however it is still a valuable and effective piece of literature that has its place within a teen collection. It is a book about perseverance and overcoming any obstacles in order to better your situation and not resign yourself to your current fate. The teenage years are a time where many kids are unsure of themselves and sometimes get knocked down and are unable to right the ship. This book speaks to that situation and the realization that sometimes you must do anything to survive because as the main character says in the book: the survivor gets to tell the story.

“Surviving is something that can only be done for so long. Eventually you have to overcome your situation, however, sometimes that situation is your dangerous mother.”

Scott Krinninger

Bibliotherapeutic Value:

The bibliotherapeutic value contained within Rules of Survival for teens comes from the overarching theme of the story which is enduring and overcoming. Life is not easy for teens or at the very least they perceive it to be not easy. People are trying to figure out who they are while still being socially accepted, juggling hormones, grades, getting into a good college, etc. Then you add on personal issues such as a broken family, and addiction, mental health issues, and teens start to drown in it all. Rules of Survival is an insight of no matter how down you are enduring and not accepting your station in life is the only way to overcome these issues. It can speak to those who are enduring something difficult or traumatic that they have trouble talking to another adult about, it can also speak to those who may be within a dangerous living situation. In the end this book has a lot of therapeutic value within it for a large variety of situations.

Issues Present:

The issues within this book range from physical abuse, to mental illness, to child neglect/abuse. Challenges against the book have also included the fact that it represents a broken household and is not appropriate for its targeted audience of teens. All of this leads to the rough situation that Matt and his two sisters Callie and Emma find themselves in during the telling of this story. Matt himself is physically assaulted by his own mother repeatedly, while the last time Emma sees her mom she was essentially force fed alcohol at a young age until she was sick.

Defending the Title:

The defense of this book is rather simple in nature. Nothing within the book is graphic or excessively violent, in fact most of the book was rather tame in comparisons to what my expectations were. All of the situations within the book are commonly dealt with by many teens and if you can’t relate in that way the overarching theme of perseverance and surviving the poor hand dealt to you is relatable by everyone. When I first read this book I was expecting something much worse or maybe an older book but to have this much outcry was somewhat a surprise to me to be honest.

Book Talk Idea:

For Rules of Survival, if I was to run a book discussion about it, I would likely focus on the interactions between Matt and Murdoch throughout the book. Matt realizes at the end that Murdoch was him as a child, however unlike Matt he had noone to turn to and get help from and he ended up killing his bad parent (who was his father). Luckily he showed up in time at the end of the story to save Matt from that similar fate. Pages to look at are: 1, 5, 32, 45, 47, 53, 94, 119, 133, 158, 202, 250

Genre:

The genre and subject matter of this book is Teen Fiction with the subject matter revolving around child abuse and social issues.

Similar Reads:

Author’s Website:

http://nancywerlin.com/

Awards Won:

Arizona Young Reader’s Award Nominations 1998 (And Ongoing)

Nebraska Golden Sower Award Nominees Young Adult 2003-04 (And Ongoing)

Illinois Abraham Lincoln High School Book Award Nominees 2005 (And Ongoing)

New Mexico Battle Of The Books Children’s Book Award Nominees 2003-04

New Hampshire Isinglass Book Award Nominees 2013-14 (And Ongoing)

ALA Popular Paperbacks For Young Adults 1997 (And Ongoing)

Professional Reviews:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/nancy-werlin/the-rules-of-survival/

http://www.yabookscentral.com › Books › Young Adult Fiction

Why did I choose to read this book?

I chose to read The Rules of Survival purely based off of its title and the back cover which has Matthew’s five rules of survival on it. The book ended up being nothing like I expected as I had not read a synopsis of it before picking it up so I was sort of picking it up purely on what I briefly saw on the book itself. It ended up being a good book though probably not something that I would regularly pick up out.

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka

An autobiographical graphic novel about Jarrett Krosoczka’s childhood and how he overcame the absence of his father and mother.

General Information:

Age Range: 12 and up
Price: $8.15
Grade Level: 7 – 9
Lexile Measure: 510
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Graphix (October 9, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0545902487
ISBN-13: 978-0545902489

Plot:

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka is a graphic novel that recently became a National Book Award Finalist. It is an autobiographical look into Jarrett’s childhood and his relationship with his mother and his grandparents who ultimately raised him. Jarrett grew up with his mother dipping in and out of his life as she dealt what ultimately was a losing battle with Heroin addiction. His Grandparents raised him and did a wonderful job even though they were not perfect either with both of them being described as “chain-smoking, hard-drinking people with sailor mouths”. Ultimately Jarrett uses his love of art and drawing to either advance himself or help cope with what was happening in his life at the time and the book shows how perseverance and doing something that you love coupled with support from some loved ones can set your life on the right track.

Reading and Interest Level:

Hey, Kiddo is marketed by Baker and Taylor for grades 7-9 and ages 12-14, though I think the interest level for this book should be extended throughout high school as the book is a slice of life of Jarrett and would appeal to older teens as well.

Evaluation:

Hey, Kiddo is an extremely well written and valuable piece of literature that libraries should be including on their shelves. The story has terrific pace and the art is subtle but tells an incredible story on its own without Jarrett’s excellent dialogue. This book is something that so many teens could relate to and is written and drawn in an engaging and highly entertaining way. It is effective by explaining various problems within Jarrett’s childhood while also highlighting the positives and how the mixture of the two plus his drawing really paved the way for who he has become today.

Bibliotherapeutic Value:

The bibliotherapeutic value of this book is so immense that I could write an essay on the topic, however, I would like to just highlight some topics that personally hit home and I am sure will resonate with teen readers. This book touches upon the idea of being in foster care or at the very least having your parents lose guardianship over their children. It deals with the hold that addiction has on families and how it can be passed down from parent to child whether it be drug and alcohol or something else. Teens can see that they may not be the only one who had a childhood similar to Jarrett’s. Personally this book has many parallels to my own life and childhood and I found great value in reading it which leads me to believe that their are likely many others as well.

Issues Present:

The issues present within the book may end up being frequently challenged due to its marketed age group. It is marketed for middle schoolers and young high school teens and there is a lot of drug references, swearing and the images can provoke powerful feelings. This book is extremely new so I have not found anything on it being officially challenged yet but it would not be surprising as it contains various subjects that tend to be darker. There is frequent smoking and drinking depicted in the images as well as Jarrett dealing with other more typical childhood problems.

Defending the Title:

In defense of the book however it is clear that this book takes on tougher subject matter but it does so without being graphic (very important in a graphic novel as the visualization is a very powerful tool). All of the things Jarrett talks about are very real issues that many kids and teens may have previously gone through or may be going through at the current time. Also many of the issues end up having long term impact of people that they have to deal with the rest of their lives. Some are born with super addictive personalities due to the drug use while in prenatal care, others may be bullied relentlessly causing social trauma and a lack of social skills. This book addresses these issues and is a terrific tool for kids to be able to gain insight into their plights or maybe plights of their close friends to gain a better overall understanding.

Book Talk Idea:

The book talk idea that I have for this book would be to follow Jarrett’s interactions with his mother throughout the story. I think that the letters that he chose to put in the story make for some interesting interactions and could spark a good dialogue within the book discussion. Since it is a graphic novel there are no page numbers for me to give as examples but their are numerous possibilities. For example when Jarrett was talking about his birthdays he mentions the time his mom showed up and held his birthday in the middle of summer at a McDonald’s just to surprise him and let him enjoy a birthday with friends.

Genre:

The genre of Hey, Kiddo is Teen Non-Fiction – Biographical. Its subject matter follows the childhood of its author Jarrett Krosoczka and how he dealt with his families issues while growing up.

Similar Reads:

Authors Website:

http://www.studiojjk.com/

Awards Won:

None at the moment though is is up for the National Book Award. Book just recently got published.

Professional Reviews:

https://www.hbook.com/2018/10/choosing-books/review-of-the-week/review-hey-kiddo/

https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=This-Was-a-Book-I-Needed-To-Write-Jarrett-J-Krosoczka-On-Hey-Kiddo

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jarrett-j-krosoczka/hey-kiddo/

Why I chose to read this book?

At Warren Newport Public Library, where I currently work, I order the graphic novels and manga for the juvenile and teen sections. I came across this book months ago to pre-order before I even knew about this class. I found a lot of parallels between my early childhood and what Jarrett had to go through which really intrigued me. Also I like a good graphic novel and the art in Hey, Kiddo is exceptionally well done. When you combine all those factors together it really got me interested and that is why I chose to read this book.

Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher

A young biracial man who is a star athlete in a racist part of the United States, overcomes adversity and learns more about the world in the process.

General Information:

· Paperback: 304 pages

· Price: $14.99

· Publisher: Greenwillow Books; Reprint edition (June 30, 2009)

· Language: English

· ISBN-10: 9780061771316

· ISBN-13: 978-0061771316

Plot:

Whale Talk is about the story of a young man named The Tao Jones, though he prefers T.J, and his story during the senior year of high school. T.J is interesting in the sense that he is a gifted individual both intellectually but also physically dominating in all sports he attempts though he never plays an organized sport for his high school. T.J lives in a small town in Idaho and everything revolves around the high school sports teams. Due to his lack of participation in addition to the fact that he is an adopted and his ethnicity is a mix of Asian – African – Caucasian. T.J learns how to handle both himself and his “enemies” as the story unfolds centering on the creation of the school’s first ever swim team. In the end he learns a lot about himself and how the world works but also makes a large impact on those around him.

Reading and Interest Level:

Whale Talk is marketed to grades 7-9 and for ages 12-14, however the story is oriented more for high school readers. Though the writing is not overly challenging however due to the age of the main character and the situations that he is going through I think high school teens is the correct target audience for this book.

Evaluation:

Whale Talk was, like many of Chris Crutcher’s books, very well written. First of this book touches upon so many different topics, including but not limited to adoption, racism, bullying, anger issues, domestic violence, and male vs. female violence to name a few topics. The book touches upon all of these topics in a realistic viewpoint and yet dives into them all deeply in some form or another through the eyes of T.J. Chris Crutcher Whale talk is effective by portraying these tough topics for teens through the lens of a teen. It is also extremely effective in the way that it is written in the sense that these characters are hyper-realistic and easily relatable. The problems these characters face may be difficult and not easy to talk about but they are real issues that many teens may face and many of them that do face these hardships have no one to talk to or feel isolated as if they are the only ones that these hardships can happen to.

Bibliotherapeutic Value:

The bibliotherapeutic usefulness of this book is incredible based upon the number of issues the book deals with all in one story. There is so much relatable material crammed into one story that almost anyone could find something to relate to in the book. There is material for those facing racial prejudice both through T.J’s eyes but also the little girl who tries to scrub the “black” off of her skin. It touches upon bullying with T.J getting jumped but also through Chris Coughlin who has a mental disability due to drugs given to him as a baby. There are family/domestic abuse performed by Rich and Mike Barbour, one on his own family and the other on his high school girlfriend. There are T.J’s rage issues and his reluctance to join in community events. All of these issues get confronted and dealt with by T.J and his family. There are even more than what I have listed and it is something that Teens can read about and realize that they are not the only ones facing these problems.

Issues Present:

Issues present within the book that may cause it to be challenged or banned are actually quite numerous. For starters the language in the book is very strong with a large number of swear words and racial language such as the N word. There are also racial issues with name calling; and straight up refusal of accepting children based off of their ethnicity, and even racial taunts towards the main character during the swim meets. Besides that the town in the book is a religious town in Idaho and the book references everything that the town lets slide for its athletes even though it is supposed to be a religious town. There is degradation of a mentally challenged student by both teachers and students, there are athletes that throw around racial slurs, and the star athlete literally tries to rape his girlfriend and the main character is told to keep quiet about it so that the star athlete’s reputation wouldn’t be tarnished. All of these things can be brought up in challenges towards the book.

Defending the Title:

Defenses of the issues that may be challenged are quite simple. This book is a realistic portrayal of a town that is facing these situations. Unfortunately that area of the United States is known for being racist towards non-Caucasians. When someone gets hit in the back of the head after being jumped they are not going to just say gosh darn, expletives are much more likely. All in all this book is realism and though that realism is ugly at times, the facts are that teens face this all the time all over the country and just because we don’t like it doesn’t mean that it isn’t how it occurs. When defending this book it these points should be brought up.

Book Talk Idea:

A great book talk that could revolve around the book Whale Talk would be to follow how T.J reacts to all of these events in his life with anger or defiance until the final act of his father at the end of the book. It is a story arc itself that shows how T.J is dealing with these anger issues until he finally learns that sometimes you have to forgive those who are at fault as some things can’t be changed. This is shown throughout the book on pages 22, 53, 85, 103, 135

Genre:

The genre of the book is Teen Fiction or Realistic Fiction as it is a story about a young man dealing with racism, being adopted and growing up finding himself.

Similar Reads:

Author’s Website:

http://www.chriscrutcher.com/

Awards Won:

2002 – Washington State Book Award for outstanding books published by Washington authors

Professional Reviews:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49746.Whale_Talk

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/chris-crutcher/whale-talk/

https://www.publishersweekly.com/0-440-22938-3

Why did I choose this book?

After reading Loser’s Bracket I was looking at more Chris Crutcher books. This one stood out to me because of the idea of this start athlete living in a small town where everything revolves around sports, yet he does not play any organized sports until his senior year and he picks swimming. The school never even had a swim team before. It was also appealing because the main character was adopted so it was something to relate to right off of the bat.

Loser’s Bracket by Chris Crutcher

A young lady who is in the foster system is in the process of finishing high school and going to college while continually being dragged back in to her biological family.

General Information:

Hardcover: 256 pages
Price: $9.99
Publisher: Greenwillow Books (April 3, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062220063
ISBN-13: 978-0062220066

Plot:

Loser’s Bracket by Chris Crutcher follows the story of a young lady as she is finishing up high school and having to deal with being a child of the state as a foster child and yet having her life intertwined with her biological families lives and problems. As the story progresses we learn more about Annie both through the telling of her story but also by her therapists notes, which are told from the therapists point of view. Annie’s intertwined life leads to problems on both fronts in her foster home and with her biological family while also highlighting the world of foster care and adoption from both viewpoints of the adopters and the adoptees.

Reader and Interest Level:

The Loser’s Bracket is marketed for Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14. The story will likely appeal to older high school students likely grade 10-12 for ages 15-18.

Evaluation:

When evaluating this book I would say that it was extremely well written. Both from the perspective of how the story flowed and kept me engaged as a reader but also from the perspective of how accurate the portrayal of the foster system is through the eyes of Annie. Chris Crutcher clearly did his background research and it was obvious to tell due to my own personal experiences with the world of fostering and adoption. I myself was in the foster system and was adopted at the age of 4 years old but the legal battles and biological family trying to pull me back into their family has followed me throughout the years. As such, I know what Annie is going through and how it affects a person as I was Annie. Based off of that alone I can safely say that not only was this story effective in explaining this world to those who have not experienced it, but also valuable due to its effectiveness. Loser’s Bracket is valuable to the individual who has lived and experienced this world by letting them know that they are not alone and that this world has its issues but also has potential to be successful as well. The value of this book also extends to those not familiar with the system by introducing them to the true nature of the system, not just the glorified side that is often portrayed in the media especially when they are showing people of stature or wealth adopting or fostering children.
“Annie’s life in the Loser’s Bracket is her trying to escape quicksand. Unfortunately for Annie that quicksand is two whirlpools of quicksand, one her biological family, and one her foster family, doing their best to drag her away from success.”

Bibliotherapeutic Value:

This book has multiple uses of bilbiotherapeutic usefulness. The greatest example of this that would portray towards Teen readers would be the way that Annie works out her self-worth in the therapy sessions (which are told from the therapists’ point of view). Many teens are in a constant state of change and flux as they are trying to figure out who they are supposed to be and in many instances that can lead to doubt and worry about ones self-worth. Throughout this book they work through these doubts and feelings and in the end Annie learns a lot about herself and whether or not she can succeed at life with gentle nudging’s from her therapist along the way. Teen readers will be able to relate to Annie’s feelings but also follow her path on towards her realization of self-worth.

Issues Present:

Why may this book be challenged or considered controversial in nature? First off this book is written by Chris Crutcher who is a well-known YA author that has not been shy about writing on controversial topics which will lead to people challenging the book purely based off its author. As for challenges with any merit, it may be challenged for drug and alcohol reference and use, domestic abuse, adultery, strong language, racism, anti-lgbtq, and overall inappropriate material for targeted age group.

Defending the Title:

How should those issues be countered? A potential reader cannot presume negative thoughts about a title purely based off of a previous reputation an author may or may not have. As for drug, and alcohol usage being challenged within the book, as well as sensitive topics such as domestic abuse, adultery, and strong language, this book is a great example of realistic fiction. It is about a young girl the same age and grade as what they target audience for the book would be and the situations that are happening within the story are classic examples of the things that people go through in real life. Many of the issues portrayed may not be pleasant to talk about yet they are subjects that must be understood as a part of growing up. Many teens that may be interested in this book may have seen these instances whether it be personally or through a close friend or family member. As such it is of the utmost importance to provide them a window to view these problems and how they can be dealt with in real life.

Book Talk Ideas:

If leading a book discussion with a group of teens I would focus upon the character Annie but more importantly how she approaches her problems. Essentially how she grows up and learns not only about herself but what she is capable of. As such I would really focus on those session summaries that are told by her therapists throughout the story and really highlight not only Annie’s mental state of mind but also how she progresses throughout her senior year of High school. These therapy session summaries can be found on pages: 31, 52, 159, 239 etc.

Genre:

Genre-Subject Matter: Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age, Foster/Adoption, learning to accept one-self.

Similar Reads:

Authors Website:

http://www.chriscrutcher.com/

Awards:

N/A at the moment as this is a relatively new book

Professional Reviews:

http://bi.galegroup.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/essentials/article/GALE%7CA529863600/3ee5f8d6acf812bbf83a7c656303913f?u=csusj

https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-222006-6

Why I chose to pick this book up?

I was intrigued by the concept of a book involving adoption and the foster care system that was written by an author that is well known for pushing the “boundaries” and writing terrific realistic fiction. It was especially interesting to me personally after looking at the summary as I myself am adopted.