Leonard Peacock and The Silver Linings Playbook

"The confluence of beauty and terror– that’s how my high school art history teacher described the sublime. A sublime painting or poem would spark fear or awe through natural beauty, grandeur, or infinity. Not long into Matthew Quick’s Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, I realized I was experiencing sublimity firsthand." -- Katie W. Beim-Esche, The Christian Science Monitor

"We should be grateful for a book that gets kids, and the leaders they’ll become, thinking about the problem now." --Nathan Heller, The New York Times.

Quick, Matthew. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock: A Novel. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2013. Print. 
 

Leonard Peacock plans to celebrate his 18th birthday by killing himself and his ex-best friend. Somehow Matthew Quick is able to take this dark subject matter and turn it into a hopeful, and sometimes funny, parable. It is the best YA book I've read so far this fall.

 

Quick, Matthew. The Silver Linings Playbook. New York: Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. Print.

I liked Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock even better than the author's most famous book, The Silver Linings Playbook. I shouldn't admit it, but this is one of the rare occasions that I preferred the movie to the book. It's a good book, but it's an amazing movie.
It has a great soundtrack, too, with songs by Dave Brubeck, Danny Elfman, Stevie Wonder, and White Stripes. You should buy it at my friend Al's record store, Exile on Main Street.

 

Silver Linings Playbook: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. New York: Sony Classical, 2012. Sound recording.

Coming this August . .

The Bell Jar meets Hatchet meets Into the Wild . . .

Morel, Alex. Survive. New York, NY: Penguin (Razorbill), 2012. Print.
ISBN 9781595145109

Survive is one of the most emotionally intense YA novels I've read in a long time. It's the story of a deeply depressed teenage girl who convinces the staff at her psychiatric facility that she is well enough to travel home on a week-long pass. On the flight to visit her parents, she slips into the airplane bathroom and pours herself a handful of pills. Before she has time to swallow, the plane crashes, and she passes out. She awakes to discover that she is one of only two plane crash survivors. She and her seatmate (a cute mountain climber) are left to struggle for their lives on an uninhabited mountain in the middle of a blizzard.

This psychological adventure story was written by one of my high school classmates, Alex Morel. I don't think that my high school produced any professional athletes, but it did put out some extremely talented published authors: David Fitzpatrick, Eric Boehlert, Suzanne Brockmann, Suzanne Kingsbury, J.M. Steele, Julia M. Usher, and David Allen Sibley.

Sharp: A Memoir. William Morrow & Co, 2012. Print.

Sibley, David. The Sibley Guide to Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Print.

Stitches by David Small

National Book Award Finalist

Small, David. Stitches: A Memoir. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2009. Print.

"David Small evokes the mad scientific world of the 1950s beautifully, a time when everyone believed that science could fix everything . . . Capturing body language and facial expressions subtly, Stitches becomes in Small's skillful hands a powerful story, an emotionally charged autobiography." --R. Crumb

"Small, in a style of dry menace, draws us a boy's life that you wouldn't want to live but you can't put down. From its first line four pages in, 'Mama had her little cough', we know that we are in the hands of a master." --Jules Feiffer

Judging by the bright, cheerful children's book illustrations David Small is most famous for, you would never guess that his own childhood was so dark. All families are a bit dysfunctional, but David Small's family was criminally insane. His grandmother, who used to discipline him with scalding hot water, was institutionalized after she locked her husband in the basement, set the house on fire, and celebrated by dancing around naked in the front yard. David Small's father, a radiologist, used extremely high levels of radiation on his son in an attempt to cure his minor sinusitis. These treatments were likely the cause of the cancerous growth that appeared on David's neck. The growth grew and grew, and David's mother put off taking him to a pediatrician for years because she didn't want to throw away good money. Years later, when David's growth finally became too big to ignore, he was operated on, and awoke to discover that one of his vocal chords had been removed along with the growth. He could no longer speak above a whisper.

Thankfully, David and his brother developed creative ways to escape the abuse. David turned to art and became an award-winning children's author. His brother turned to music and became a professional classical percussionist.

This is the most compelling graphic novel/memoir I've read since Art Spiegelman's Breakdowns.

Spiegelman, Art. Breakdowns. London: Viking, 2008. Print.

Here are just a few of David Small's wonderful books for children:

Small, David. Imogene's Antlers. New York: Crown Publishers, 1985. Print.


Stewart, Sarah, and David Small. The Library. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995. Print.

Caldecott Medalist
George, Judith S, and David Small. So You Want to Be President. New York: Philomel Books, 2000. Print.

Broach, Elise, and David Small. When Dinosaurs Came with Everything. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007. Print.

Red Palms

If you liked Forever by Judy Blume, and The Cay by Theodore Taylor, you will absolutely LOVE Red Palms by Cara Haycak. I did!

Haycak, Cara. Red Palms. New York: Wendy Lamb Books, 2004. Print.

Blume, Judy. Forever: A Novel. Scarsdale, N.Y: Bradbury Press, 1975. Print

Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1969. Print.

Here's what the critics had to say about Cara Haycak's unique coming of age story set in an exotic island off the coast of Ecuador:

"Readers will be enchanted by the exotic, magical qualities of this coming-of-age story. Unique and beautifully written." --Kirkus Reviews.

"Haycak serves up a rich literary stew, like a chef who throws all her ingredients into the pot at once." --Voice of Youth Advocates.

"Haycak writes a captivating, insightful story, and the vividly evoked setting, cultural specifics, and strong characterizations distinguish this inventive, ambitious effort from a talented new author." --Gillian Engberg, Booklist.

By the way, Cara the Author is really fun. I had the pleasure of sitting next to the author at my friend Dib Ziade's 50th birthday party. Cara named a character in Red Palms after Señor Ziade!

Too short or too tall?

Schwartz, John. Short: Walking Tall When You're Not Tall at All.
New York: Rb Flash Point, 2010.

New York Times reporter Jon Schwartz pokes holes through studies that claim that short people are disadvantaged, and in doing so, he teaches young readers how to judge the validity of scientific studies.

Smith, Sherri L. Lucy the Giant. New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, 2002.

Lucy the Giant is a teen novel about a big girl from a small Alaskan town who runs away to work as an adult on a crabbing boat. Even though I hate cold weather, I really like to read about Alaska.

Nemeth, Sally. The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.

This novel for upper elementary school audiences is about the friendship between a really, really tall girl and a boy with dwarfism. The story gets interesting when the boy meets an Amish girl who also has dwarfism.

Teenage Cult Fiction

Here are three teen novels that deal with cults:

Fahy, Thomas Richard. The Unspoken.
New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2008.

"The bright red blood on Allison's pillow reminds her of 'Snow White' --not the watered-down Disney version with magic kisses, dwarfs named Dopey, and singing animals. The older story with a hateful queen who wants to eat a young girl's lung and liver. The one that ends when the queen is torched to death in red-hot iron slippers."

Even though The Unspoken is only 166 pages long--and it has a fantastic opening paragraph--I only got halfway through the book. To be fair, I'm not a big fan of horror stories.

Yolen, Jane, and Bruce Coville. Armageddon Summer. San Diego, Calif: Harcourt Brace, 1998.

Two teenagers are dragged along by their parents to a separatist militia camp to await the end of the world. Armageddon Summer is a good book, but a little dated.

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. Leaving Fishers. Paw Prints, 2008.

New kid in town, Dorry Stephens, is lured into joining a religious youth group that turns out to be more of a cult than a church. If you liked the Family Guy episode, Chitty Chitty Death Bang, you will love Leaving Fishers.

The Book I Read

Alexie, Sherman, and Ellen Forney. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown, 2007.

I just finished reading a really great book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie with artwork by Ellen Forney. It's a sad and funny bildungsroman about a teenage basketball player/cartoonist who leaves "the rez" to go to a white school. The book received rave reviews, and even won a National Book Award.

Part-Time Indian is peppered with sardonically funny drawings, philosophical quotes, and "top 9" lists. Here are some of my favorites:

"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes . . . By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are _ssholes and those who are not."


Favorite books:
1. The Grapes of Wrath
2. Catcher in the Rye
3. Fat Kid Rules the World
4. Tangerine
5. Feed
6. Catalyst
7. Invisible Man
8. Fools Crow
9. Jar of Fools

If you share a fondness for any of the titles listed above, you will love The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.

So you want to be a rock & roll star . . .

Here are some more YA (young adult) books about teenage rockers:

Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys by Francesca Lia Block
I don't usually like magical realism, but I love Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat series.


Fat Kid Rules the World by K.L. Going
The main character is a morbidly obese teenage boy who befriends the coolest (and skinniest) guitar god in the Lower East Side.

Pop Princess by Rachel Cohn
This wonderfully escapist novel is about a teen idol who secretly prefers Paul Weller over her own brand of bubblegum pop.

Rock Star Superstar

The other night I read Blake Nelson's Rock Star Superstar in one sitting. Although it is classified as a YA (young adult) book, I'm practically middle-aged and I loved it. It's a believable novel about an extremely talented high school jazz band nerd who gets involved with the local music scene. Best part? His love interest is a chubby girl who dresses like a "punk librarian!"

Reading Rock Star Superstar made me feel like I was back in high school. And I LOVED high school.

Amnesia

By chance, three of the books I borrowed last week touch upon the topic of amnesia:

• Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin
• Airhead by Meg Cabot
• Strange Piece of Paradise by Terri Jentz

Gabrielle Zevin's Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is classified as a young adult novel, but I think a lot of older folks will like it, too. It's a love story about a boy and a girl, Will and Naomi, who work together on their yearbook staff as co-editors. This book is full of wonderful music references, plus, the theme of their yearbook is The White Album.


Meg Cabot's Airhead is a fluffy, girly read. If Airhead and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac were movies, Airhead would be Mean Girls and Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesic would be Juno.






Here is Amazon's description of the Terri Jentz memoir, Strange Piece of Paradise:

In the summer of 1977, Terri Jentz and her Yale roommate, Shayna Weiss, make a cross-country bike trip. They pitch a tent in the desert of central Oregon. As they are sleeping, a man in a pickup truck deliberately runs over the tent. He then attacks them with an ax. The horrific crime is reported in newspapers across the country. No one is ever arrested. Both women survive, but Shayna suffers from amnesia, while Terri is left alone with memories of the attack. Their friendship is shattered.

Since the true crime books I reviewed last week left me feeling a bit depressed, I'm going to save Strange Piece of Paradise for another day. I know that once I start reading, I won't be able to put it down.

The Burn Journals by Brent Runyon

It hurts to read The Burn Journals, but if you can bear the pain, it's a story you will never forget. Unfortunately, it's a true one.

When Brent Runyon was fourteen, he tried to commit suicide by setting himself on fire. He changed his mind almost immediately after lighting the match, but it was too late. His entire body was severely burned and he had to endure months of painful physical and mental rehabilitation.

I don't usually recommend tearjerkers, but I consider The Burn Journals to be a must-read. Jennifer Mattson of Booklist seems to share my feelings:

"Some excruciatingly painful moments notwithstanding, this can and should be read by young adults, as much for its literary merit as for its authentic perspective on what it means to attempt suicide, and, despite the resulting scars, be unable to remember why."

To see photographs and learn more about the book, please visit www.burnjournals.com. It's worth the cry.