Boy 21

Boy 21

By Matthew Quick

Little, Brown, and Company (2012)      ISBN: 9780316127974

* 2014 Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners

Boy 21 is a story about friendship, love, and basketball. The main character, 18-year old Finley McManus, has always been a quiet boy. With his mother having died eight years ago, Finley pours all of his time and energy into basketball. He, along with his long-time girlfriend, Erin, devote tireless hours to their conditioning and training. At the beginning of his senior year, Finley’s coach asks him to do him a favor: Meet and befriend a basketball superstar, Russ, and help him transition to life in Bellmont, NJ, a town notorious for its drug dealers, gang bangers, and poverty. Torn between helping Russ, who is struggling to come to grips with the murder of his parents and his recent transplant from Los Angeles and potentially losing his starting position on the basketball team, Finley begins to realize that people—not a game—matter most. Through his friendship with Russ, also known as Boy 21, Finley comes to terms with his own mother’s death and what life beyond Bellmont might offer.

Quantitative: Flesch-Kincade Ease—91.2; Flesch-Kincade Grade Level—4.8

Qualitative: Based on language and the linear plotline, students as young as the fourth grade could understand Boy 21. However, due to content, this book would be best for students in the upper grades. Boy 21 addresses such topics as drugs, gangs, violence, police evasion, and murder, younger students may not have the emotional or mental maturity to process these topics. Students, depending on how adept a reader they are, may have difficulty understanding Russ’s focus on outer space. Russ’s fixation on the stars and constellations could be misinterpreted by novice readers.

Standards: RL 9/10.1-6

Subjects: English; Health—Relationships; Health—Mental Health; Health—Trauma; Sports

Curriculum Suggestions:

The mental and emotional struggle of both Russ and Finley demonstrates the depths to which students who have endured a traumatic event bury it only to cope with it privately. Because of the novel’s connections to sports, race, and the death of parents, teachers could examine healthy ways of dealing with tragedy as well as researching the impacts of students being involved in extracurricular activities such as sports programs. Gale-Cengage’s Opposing Viewpoints database, provides portal pages that offer students access to credible and reliable articles that speak directly to the major issues Boy 21 addresses. Overall, I see this book fitting best on an outside reading list, especially since the book appears on this year’s list of outstanding books for college bound and lifelong learners. Teachers and teacher-librarians could also encourage students to read other books by Matthew Quick including the Oscar award-winning story, The Silver Linings Playbook.

Digital Resources:

YALSA--http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2014-outstanding-books-college-bound-and-lifelong-learners  

Personal Thoughts: I really enjoyed Boy 21. This story really speaks to young boys, especially those living in communities where gangs, drugs, and violence are prominent. I see this being a great recommendation for struggling and reluctant readers. 

*Meets the “Reading for Pleasure HS/MS” requirement

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower    Gallery Books (1999)  ISBN: 9781451696202

By Stephen Chbosky

Written in a personal journal format, Charlie reveals the challenges he faces during his freshmen year of high school. Charlie begins his story by sharing details of his friend, Michael’s, suicide, which occurred during the boys’ 8th grade year. After Michael’s death, Charlie, along with some of Michael’s other friends, attend counseling. Charlie carries this and his beloved aunt’s death with him as he forges through his freshmen year of high school. Charlie finds two pivotal friends in seniors, Patrick and Sam, a step-brother and sister duo who welcomes Charlie into their pack of wallflowers. Through their friendship and his English teacher’s reading recommendations, Charlie begins to come to terms with the tragedy that he’s endured and the mental illness he bears.  This formative tale underscores a teenager’s experimentation with drugs, sex, and self-discovery.

Quantitative: Lexile—720L; ATOS—4.8

Qualitative: Although the language doesn’t pose much difficulty, the interest level of The Perks of Being a Wallflower is for upper grade students. With issues like sex, drugs, suicide, mental illness, and homosexuality in addition to the use of vulgar language, this book would not be appropriate for the age group Accelerated Reader matches it with. However, these issues connect with various access points that make this book highly engaging for high school students. The journal format of the novel may pose some difficulty. In many instances, Charlie’s first-person narrative includes flashbacks that a reader must interpret. Additionally, because of Charlie’s mental state, he often leaves thoughts or observations open-ended allowing the reader to fill in the gap. Two specific instances occur in the form of the “Dear Friend” that Charlie addresses each journal entry to and the vague details regarding his relationship with his favorite aunt.  With allusions to classical literature and eighties/early nineties music, readers may struggle to understand how the themes of these books and songs relate to the novel as a whole. Both prior and cultural knowledge will definitely assist in a reader’s understanding of the themes Chbosky presents.

Content Area: English; Health—Relationships; Health—Homosexuality; Health—Mental Health; Health--Teen suicide

Standards: RL.9/10.2-5; 9

Curriculum Suggestions: The Perks of Being a Wallflower would be great additional or supplemental reading that connects to the classic novel, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Students could compare and contrast Charlie’s experiences to Holden Caulfield’s experience. Both books that revolve around teenage angst and with characters struggling to maintain a healthy mental state, the books, when analyzed side by side, add more meaning to one another. What do the students notice about the voices of Charlie and Holden? How does the structure of each novel influence the reader’s attitude toward each character?

Another way teachers can encourage additional reading is through the intertextuality of the novel. Teachers could create “Charlie’s Reading List.” This list could be used, again, as supplemental or additional reading. Since many of the texts are already appear on recommended, core literature lists, English teachers could even organize their class thematically using “Charlie’s Reading List” as an anchor.

Like Catcher in the Rye, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a book that was a challenged book. Teachers could have students examine the books that have been challenged and determine what makes these books controversial. It would also serve as a wonderful display in the library for Banned Book Month.

Finally, teachers may want to have their students keep a personal journal or blog Like Charlie, they may find the exercise therapeutic. Allowing for journal/blogging time in the course of a class period would emphasize the importance and benefits of keeping a journal.

Digital Resources:

·         Perks of Being a Wallflower Screenplay--http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~ina22/splaylib/Screenplay-Perks_of_Being_a_Wallflower.pdf

·         Read Alikes--http://www.cityofpuyallup.org/files/library/9253feee5da2df77.pdf

·         Top 10 ALA Banned Books List--http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10

·         Penzu: Online Journal--http://penzu.com/

Personal Thoughts: When considering a school’s population, The Perks of Being a Wallflower really attracts students that can relate to Charlie and his friends. What the novel really exposes is how guarded students are about their problems. Adults often don’t realize the struggles students bring with them every day. The multiple access levels really speak to a diverse group coping with universal issues.

*Meets the “Reading for Pleasure HS/MS” requirement