Young Adult Novels

When exploring the world of young adult fiction, the possibilities are truly endless. A good book can leave you mesmerized, pleading for more. This is exactly what novels like Speak, Stargirl, and Series of Unfortunate Events do to young readers. They invoke questions to be asked, solutions to be questioned, and happy ending to be doubted. These novels have so many fascinating components from how Stargirl dresses, to how Melinda strives to communicate with her friends and family in Speak, to attempting to uncover the secrets behind the Baudelaire family.
Reading these books myself makes me rethink my childhood memories or reading and becoming involved with the stories I read.
One large series of books that I could not put down as a child were Matt Christopher’s sport series. (http://www.mattchristopher.com) Mr. Christopher was a young adult writer; his works were admired by young boys. He earned the #1 Sports Series of kids and has published more than 100 books with sales approaching six million copies. Each book had a man character involved in some sort of sport or activity. They would always have a confrontation or dilemma and would have to overcome the obstacles in order to succeed. Matt Christopher had novels of almost every sport including soccer, baseball, running, snowboarding, lacrosse, dirt biking, golf, volleyball, hockey, and swimming. These stories captured my imagination and interest because I could relate to the material I was reading and I felt connect myself with the characters in the story. Mr. Christopher’s work has spanned three generations of readers along with writing and publishing more than one hundred twenty novels. In my eyes, these achievements make him the most prolific and bestselling sportswriter for children and young adults that I have ever encountered.
When reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, there was multiple times throughout my reading that I felt very confused and distant to Melinda’s way of thinking. Melinda was a very courageous yet timid young woman during her first year of high school. Dealing with her fears of popularity, friendship troubles, and the persona of Andy Evans Melinda cocooned herself in her own small world. She could not find a comfortable way to reach out to her former friends, her parents, or her teachers/ counselors. She felt that no one would ever understand. A great website that I found deals with Melinda’s controversial issues and compares them to the Scarlet Letter and Hester’s issues. Making connections with these to stories lets young adults possibly have a better understanding of how internal guilt and uncertainness can have an effect on them. (http://writerlady.com/novelsh/Deceitdespair.html#slsdiscuss)
The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony has a total of 13 books in the series and all of them encompass the adventures of the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. The author, Handler, has created a fictional author/narrator for this series of books. Lemony Snicket is a character that Handler invented, and has implemented him into the stories of the Baudelaire children. So the nature of Lemony Snicket is in fact a fictional character as well as a real person. This persona of Lemony Snicket is quite enticing, in regards to his mysterious connection to the Baudelaire family, the affiliation known as V.F.D, and his devotion to sharing the truth about the Baudelaire family, and how their story came to be.
The dual perspective of a reader of these Series of Unfortunate Events seems to connect the readers to the story right away, from the beginning of the book to the end. Lemony Snicket does not exactly introduce himself per say, but he does include points about his life, such as the triptych that his close friend Professor Reed painted for him. “He painted fire on one panel, typewriter on the other, and the face of a beautiful, intelligent woman on the third.” (pg. 55) The triptych is entitled “What Happened to Beatrice.” These small exerts in the novel gives the readers a chance to familiarize themselves with Mr. Snicket, understanding his great interest in the Baudelaire’s story and how his role is so influential on the reader’s opinion of the characters throughout the novel. The whole series is Mr. Snicket’s opinion about Count Olaf, his misfits, the Baudelaire orphans, their guardians over time, etc… The way these books are written makes the reader sympathize with the children and Mr. Snicket, therefore giving the readers a drive to follow the lives of the Baudelaire children and read about their series of unfortunate events.
Lemony Snicket’s irony throughout the book gives the story a sense of lightheartedness when dealing with the truly disastrous events that have come upon the Baudelaire family. Without pieces of irony such as “S.O.R.E Special Orphan Running Exercises” or the explanation of the masquerade on page 167, this book would be completely devastating. The use of irony allows the reader and the author to step back and compare the lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny, and how they compare to a normal life of three adolescent children. Their lives have gone this tremendous twists and turns and it seems that the E.N.D is eight more novels away.
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli was on of my favorite reads of this semester. The character of Stargirl is so mysterious and eccentric, she has the capability to make a rainy day glow with sun beams and change the heart of anyone that gives her a chance to be heard. When Leo first hears of Stargirl his first thought of her is, how will she survive without being unchanged, how can she survive being different? Stargirl proves to Leo that anything is possible if you just believe that it can be. Leo learns about love, hate, passion, creativity, imagination, and ego is his short time with Stargirl. This novel is an emotional tale about the dangers of popularity and the thrill and inspiration of first love.

Speak

1. From the beginning of the book, Speak, there is an underlying element to Melinda that as a reader I felt uncertain about. She keeps to herself at school and while she is at home. She talks about her former friends and remises on past experiences that they had together. Melinda’s mother works downtown so she rarely sees her unless she misses the bus for school in the morning. Her father gets home late in evening and Melinda usually finds ways to keep distance between herself and her parents. When Melinda talks, it is most likely to herself, reminiscing in her closet about former friends, current fears, or future decisions. Throughout the entire story Melinda is finding her inner voice, her will to speak out on the world. Melinda’s believes that the norms of high school are related to groups and popularity. She wants to fit in, yet criticizes the groups such as the Martha’s.
As for the others view of Melinda Sordino, the school students attach a dark shadow to Melinda. Rumors are constantly generated by anonymous classmates and she even loses her only somewhat friend, Heather, because of the negativity that surrounds Melinda.
4. Some symbols that seem to be relevant in the Melinda’s struggle in the novel Speak are the tree, biting her lips, mascots, and IT. Melinda is assigned an art project in the beginning of the school year, to create a work of art that expresses Melinda’s persona. Her object to work with is a tree. In the beginning Melinda continuously draws a dead or dying tree. This can relate to how Melinda expresses herself in the book, with her artwork. The constant change of the mascots could relate to Melinda and her personality changes that have happened so quickly through the school year. Biting her lips seems somewhat violent in a sense, but I was Melinda’s way of keeping to herself. Holding in her thoughts, pains, fears, and joys (the little that she had). IT, Andy Evans, is a monster and someone that can never be trusted. Melinda had been silent and frightened because of Andy Evans and the control that he had over practically the entire school Melinda constantly battled with this emotional and physical struggle until one day she was finally ready to speak out of Andy’s tyrant behavior and put him in his place. All of these symbols personify Melinda and her journey to find her inner voice in order to finally speak.