Young Adult Book Reading Challenges discussion

Who is reading our book for this October? What do you think (no spoilers)

Just picked it up from the library. I'll be starting it just as soon as I finish my current book. I expect to be seriously depressed.

I've read this once before and loved it. Reading it again, love it even more.

I read this book a few weeks ago and I'll be very interested to hear what others think. I kept associating it with a few real life cases that happened.

Going to read it in a week or 2. But I accidentally saw the last page just to check how many pages it has. I didn't get it but I hope I won't until I actually read that part.

I finished this months ago and it still haunts me (which is a good thing for a book) to this day. I teach, so this is a common recommended book and my kids love it (12th graders!).

MrsJKeith wrote: "I finished this months ago and it still haunts me (which is a good thing for a book) to this day. I teach, so this is a common recommended book and my kids love it (12th graders!)."

What do your students think of it?

Marta wrote: "I read this book a few weeks ago and I'll be very interested to hear what others think. I kept associating it with a few real life cases that happened."

I did the same thing. Have you read Jaycee Dugard's book? So creepy and haunting.

Laura wrote: "MrsJKeith wrote: "I finished this months ago and it still haunts me (which is a good thing for a book) to this day. I teach, so this is a common recommended book and my kids love it (12th graders!)..."

They are enthralled, and sometimes disturbed. The way it is written, they are instantly gripped and it's extremely difficult to put down. My girls like it more, but just barely. I can't keep it on my shelf - it's shorter than a lot of novels I have on my shelf so that wins over the boys. It's a bit graphic in parts. Hard to not give away spoilers, so I'll stop there.

It's loaded on the Kindle and I started it yesterday.

About to start!!!

Another extremely fast read. Took 2 hours.

I had to break this up into 2 sittings b/c it was so disturbing.

I met Elizabeth Scott at a YA Lit event last week and told her about this group on Goodreads choosing her book for the month. She was honored and said she hoped it provided good discussion considering how dark the subject matter is.

I read this this spring/ early summer when Bitch magazine (yes, really) put this book on their list of good feminist YA novels, then took it off the list.

They also took put on and took off Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels and ... Sorry, can't remember the third book.

Wow I can't believe they saw this as a feminist novel.
This is about a little girl who is kidnapped, abused... (I don't want to spoil it for some). It's about what a person must do to survive.

Doing what needs to be done to survive is the definition of a feminist novel, in my dictionary.

And the third wonderful book Bitch magazine decided to delist after first listing is Jackson Pearce's . And it was January- February when all this went down. And, many writers, dozens, asked to be delisted after Elizabeth Scott, Margo Lanagan & Jackson Pearce were taken off the list. Bitch refused.

I read this book a year ago. To this day, it disturbs me. It is an amazing book. I couldn't put it down. Elizabeth Scott took me to a scary place and help me hostage in alice's mind. It is one of the best books I have ever read.

I read the book a long time ago, but it still lingers in the back of my mind.

Laura wrote: "Wow I can't believe they saw this as a feminist novel.
This is about a little girl who is kidnapped, abused... (I don't want to spoil it for some). It's about what a person must do to survive."

It all depends on what you think feminist literature is.

If you think it is limited to strong women making strong decisions, then yes, the placement of this novel on the list might be questionable.

But if you think of feminist literature as a body of work addressing women's issues, then I think it fits right in.

It is all subjective I guess.

Ive read this book a couple months ago , it was a great read . some parts where inappropriate but it was still a good realistic fiction book .

I just finished a little while ago. SO intense...

Just started it today,and without giving anything away it's definitely disturbing. I have a child so that's always going to be a big fear, so the subject matter is hard for me to read. I'm glad I read The Lovely Bones before I got pregnant for the same reasons. I'm still going to read it though because I have to find out what happens...

Started this morning just finishes

Stephanie wrote: "I had to break this up into 2 sittings b/c it was so disturbing.

I met Elizabeth Scott at a YA Lit event last week and told her about this group on Goodreads choosing her book for the month. She ..."


Thank you for telling her about our group!!!! I love when authors know we are discussing their book!

Julia wrote: "I read this this spring/ early summer when Bitch magazine (yes, really) put this book on their list of good feminist YA novels, then took it off the list.

They also took put on and took off [aut..."

Do you know why they removed it? I mean why remove some but refuse to remove others when they wanted to be removed?

I googled "Bitch magazine controversy" last week to find the name of the third book involved -- I couldn't think of it because I loved it so much -- and this was the first (or was it second?) listing.

Why do people ban and challenge books? You think there are rational reasons? I don't. One reader said that these books might be 'triggering.' And the three books were taken off the list, and the list makers wouldn't listen to others, including writers who wanted their books taken off.

The 3rd book is Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels.

The whole Bitch thing was ridiculous and embarrassing, the way it unfolded.

But on the other hand, I read three great books that I might not otherwise have read as a result of the ridiculous and embarrassing way Bitch zine put together then pulled apart their list!

I'm glad to see that The Lovely Bones was mentioned. I didn't really like that book, but the way this is written, coupled with the subject matter makes it similar to me. I only started this morning on my commute, and I'm already 33% complete! I imagine I will have this finished in no time. But I would say that this is another time where I am shocked at how dark and very suggestive YA can be...

Just read the first chapter. Already I am sad for the main character.

Keep going, you can do it!
We're here for you.

Antonio wrote: "Going to read it in a week or 2. But I accidentally saw the last page just to check how many pages it has. I didn't get it but I hope I won't until I actually read that part."

Funny thing is that I accidentally read the last page too! I flipped there looked down and read it! ERRRR

Here is an article on the whole Bitch magazine thing:

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/B...

I read it last year sometime. I think that it was well written but very hard to read. I work at a library in the young adult/children's area and had a long discussion with the co-workers on the appropriate age for this book (because at that time it was in the young adult area) but because of the topic and the descriptive writing it was moved to the adults area. I think that Elizabeth Scott is great writer no matter the subject!

I have to agree for once about this not really being a YA Book. What I mean by that is I think a child of thirteen might just be disturbed but the graphic writing. Now a will say though parents know their children best and can decide if they should or should not read this.

I just found that Bitch magazine, even though crossing the book off their list, chose it as a book club pick!! WOW

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/bitch-y...

Yeah, it's pretty appalling. And then the women commenting on the books, to my suspicious mind anyway, seemed like they were just defending the blog's earlier position; to take this book off a list of feminist books.
But so few comments-- is that because people have gone elsewhere to discuss books?
Thanks for sharing this, Angie!

I find their discussion quite limited. For a panel of "experts" on feminist YA literature, they do not seem to be particularly versed in the subject. If that discussion was only aimed at justifying the book's exclusion from their list, it wasn't a very convincing one.

I just got the book and found it a quick read. I'm surprised that it's classified as YA. It's certainly appropriate for young adults (17-25) but I'm not sure about younger readers.

I know this is a sticky topic and I would never, ever advocate keeping books away from people based on age. However, I keep picturing a nine or ten year old browsing the YA shelves in a bookstore or library and finding this book amid all the fluff that's commonly found on YA shelves (although I don't mean to imply that YA is all fluff - it's NOT). Could a child that age cope with this book? Would they be prepared for the decidedly more adult content if they were expecting a typical tale of teenage angst where the worst thing that happens is that your best friend no longer likes you?

Just because the protagonist in a book is 15 years old, it doesn't mean the book is aimed at 15 year-old readers. After all, Room certainly wasn't aimed at five-year-old readers.

When I was teen, in the Dark Ages before YA books were a significant piece of publishing, I was told I could read whatever was on my father's and mother's bookshelves. I read some great and popular authors: J.D. Salinger, James A. Michener, Leon Uris, Chaim Potok. We often discussed the books we read and found others for each other. Wasn't able to convince my parents of Tolkein's greatness, unfortunately. I also found a book called Candy, I think that was the title, I can't find it here on GR that was probably soft-core porn. I just put it back on the shelf. No harm, no foul.

A good librarian or bookstore clerk or English teacher isn't going to recommend Living Dead Girl to a nine year old, I hope.

Grace, have you read Room yet? I haven't, but want to compare the two books...

Grace wrote: "I just got the book and found it a quick read. I'm surprised that it's classified as YA. It's certainly appropriate for young adults (17-25) but I'm not sure about younger readers.

I know this is ..."

I AGREE!! I would never pull this from a YA book section.. but I certainly would try to dissuade a young teen (10-12) from reading it!

Tatiana wrote: "I find their discussion quite limited. For a panel of "experts" on feminist YA literature, they do not seem to be particularly versed in the subject. If that discussion was only aimed at justifying..."

I still don't really get why they don't think of it as a feminist book? One person says: "I personally consider more groundbreaking work to be feminist work. I don’t believe this is a groundbreaking treatment of the issue. Some may consider it a feminist book given Alice’s heroic ability to survive. But this question seems almost impossible to answer given the many different living feminisms that exist today."

So the event has to be ground breaking? This isn't something new so it doesn't count? Just doesn't make sense to me!

Julia wrote: "When I was teen, in the Dark Ages before YA books were a significant piece of publishing... I also found a book called Candy...

A good librarian or bookstore clerk or English teacher isn't going to recommend Living Dead Girl to a nine year old, I hope.

Grace, have you read Room yet? I haven't, but want to compare the two books... "

I know what you mean - back in the dark ages, before YA - I used to browse the adult section in my home town library. (My parents didn't have their own library since English wasn't their native language.) The children's section was on a different floor so I was very conspicuous the first time I entered the adult section - alone. At first the librarian balked at letting me borrow books but she eventually gave up and I had free reign.

I also read Candy when I was 15 - I bought it in paperback so I didn't have to worry about the librarian.

You're right - a good librarian wouldn't recommend the Living Dead Child to a nine-year-old BUT a child could still find it if, like me, they liked to browse and pick up books at random. The clerk at the check out might not really know enough about the book to warn the child about the book's subject matter.

I listened to ROOM as an audiobook and it was just chilling. It's told from a young child's point of view, a five-year-old, and it's clear the child doesn't fully understand what's happening but the reader can clearly grasp the situation the child is in - not immediately, perhaps, but it doesn't take long.

Don't worry - the child is never sexually abused but his mother is being held captive by her abductor who happens to be the child's father (so you know the captivity has lasted at least 6 years).

The only thing the two books have in common is the idea of abduction, rape, and captivity - there are many very important differences. In ROOM, you learn enough to understand the conditions under which the child and his mother live but they're able to escape and, in some ways, their trials really begin. ROOM explores what life might be like for the survivors of an abduction who've been held captive for years.

I always have heard about the book Room. I had NO IDEA that is what it was about! Interesting that it is about the survivors. I always think about the people who have escaped camps like the FLDS church in TX. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamen...