I will admit, for the past eight years I have looked at this book over and over, undecided about whether or not I would read it. I finally have and it was completely different than I expected it to be. I didn't realize how sci-fi it was.
Matt is a clone of the all powerful, 140-year old El Patron who's the leader of a corrupt drug empire located in between Mexico and the US. We follow Matt as he grows up from birth to 14 in this empire as he struggles being labelled as a beast.
The first few chapters were really hard for me to read because of the way they treated this boy because he was a clone. This touches issues in human treatment, what it means to be human, and of course, cloning. I really got into the story once we passed his first 6 years. Then I could relate and understood the reasons behind his actions. Farmer creates memorable characters that surround Matt as he grows up.
Halfway through, the book takes a turn that I wasn't expecting. It almost interrupted my journey of his world because the whole world changed. I don't want to spoil the book for readers so I won't go into it it.
Overall, I quite enjoyed the book though I enjoyed the characters more than the plot. It is well written, your morals and sense of reality are tested, and I would recommend this book.
4.5/5 STARS
Use in the classroom:
This book offers many interesting discussion topics, especially treating humans with respect. Good debate question: Is a clone a human? I would use this definitely if I had a strong group of readers for a literacy circle. An excellent choice for in the classroom.
As Tamora Pierce is my favourite author, I figure it would be appropriate to review one of her newer novels. Terrier takes us into the memorable world of Tortall, hundreds of years before Alanna, Daine, and Keladry. Beka Copper is a girl with hopes of providing for her family in the only way she can - become a part of the guard, known as Dogs. Though she starts as "Puppy" she soon makes a name for herself as a "terrier". The is Pierce's first attempt at first-person writing and the story is told in diary format.
The story concept was new and refreshing, taking us away from the nobility and into the world of common people, thieves, and the people who try to keep the peace. Beka finds herself in the middle of two mysteries and attempts to solve them with the help of her pigeons, connections with Rogues, and her sponsor supervisor Dogs.
While Pierce is my favourite author, I did not necessarily fall in love with this book as I did with her other Tortall books. I found the journal entries to be unbelievably long. If I am supposed to believe that Beka had enough time to write all this down and do what she did, there must be more than 24 hours in a day in Tortall. That and that the book (around 600 pages) took place in only 3 or so months. I'm not sure I liked the experiment of the entries, however, I quite enjoyed the different flow of the first-person speech.
Memorable characters, enjoyable character "voice", long diary entries, refreshing story concept, and no disappointing ending.
4/5 STARS
Use in the classroom:
I would not be against a student using this as an individual study, however, I would only recommend it for a student who is a fast reader. Because of the sheer size of this book I would not use it in the classroom.
I was drawn to this book because it was set in Smithers, BC (Go Canada) and the author is from BC. It is difficult to find books that are set in Canada, at least, I find it to be so. I will admit that I picked this book up because I got it confused with "Go Ask Alice", but that's ok. I had high hopes for this book, DO NOT LET ME DOWN... and it did...
Alice is a home-schooled girl who's had many problems integrating with "normal" school students. Her new therapist tells her to make a list of goals and the book follows her as she tries to achieve them. It it written in diary form.
I quite enjoyed the voice of the character, however, I did feel that the voice and use of language was too old for her actual age. Some of the scenarios were crazy and fun, but somewhat unrealistic. While I did laugh at many of these, it seemed as though Alice and her family were so unusual it was hard to believe. Suspend my disbelief I can do, but it was to wacky for me.
Great and smart writing style, excellently wacky character, laugh out-loud commentary, highly unbelievable, hard to relate to (this coming from a small town girl), and overall, I did not like it.
2/5 STARS
Use in the classroom:
This is a good book to discuss being yourself. Alice is unafraid of being herself, but like most of us, suffers an identity crisis only to overcome it all on her own. Some readers might struggle with the high level of vocabulary. Best suited for an individual book study.
In a world where anyone can be an author, I have decided to keep this blog for book reviews (since I am anyone). Originally, I created this blog for a university course and you might find some remains of my old posts circa 2009. Now I've converted it into a hobby.
I absolutely love reading young adult literature so why not create an archive of book reviews for myself and others. I will give a star rating, but I will also include reasons why I chose the number. The dilemma for choosing stars always confuses me because I might love the author's writing style but the story did nothing for me. I intend to rate books as I see fit. As an educator, I always consider what classroom uses a book might have and so at the end of each review I will suggest possible uses in a classroom.
Reviews will begin when my browser decides not to crash every 3 minutes...
Happy reading!
A deep dive is when one’s attention has be caught by something interesting and they decide to find out more on the subject (Gasser & Palfrey). We do it every day, through search engines such as Google or Wikipedia. Sometimes spending hours upon hours researching the subject. Embarrassingly, the last thing I did a “deep dive” on was myself, or rather, the other person with exact same name as me who is more famous (she is a movie producer). Or how about my research the EDCI 353B paper. I spent 8 hours straight at the computer, finding fan sites and fan videos, articles, and documentaries. Youth today have access to more information than ever before, with a lot of it being credible, or more often than not, a not so credible rant or opinion on the subject.
One presentation that really impressed me was Aimee's, on online resources and information. She made this point that the online resources can be used in two ways. One was to use it for what it was intended, so a history site would offer material that could be studied, and second, the teacher could use it to teach the text, so critically analyze the point of view or bias. I really liked this idea because it is so easy to type in a word and have one million hits, many of which are not credible, but our students may not know this. We can make them aware of the amount of misinformation out there so that when they read an article online they are able to criticize the content of the information.
Grazers
It is opposite to a “deep dive” in the fact that youth are browsing surface information, scanning the content for condensed information (Gasser & Palfrey). They are able together information from a variety of sources, “absorbing news all day long on various websites, their understanding of current events is superficial and limited to headlines” (Gasser & Palfrey, p. 24). The reason for grazing is instant results. Youth of today want the information right away and would rather get the main points of the story rather than read a long-winded explanation. This becomes a vicious circle as the “pure information” articles are reducing our ability to focus our attention for longer than a minute.
What we have to compete with as English teachers would probably be the accessibility of synopsis and ready-made character analyses of books being studied. They are just a simple search away. Our students would rather find out what happens in a book, play, or poem, in a paragraph rather than read the material. We can take advantage of this and explore these sites. Offer them as a starting point, maybe to help decode some Shakespeare, but then take the information further. Help develop analytical minds.
Coauthors/Cocreators in a Digital Environment
Youth (and other internet users) are cocreators of the internet space. On the web, many sites have public access in which anyone can collaborate on creating “massive open documents” (Johnson, 2005, 170). As I discovered and as Eli presented, “fan sites” are everywhere for almost everything and anyone. They range from “capturing nuances of a show”, fan fiction, or commentary on latest events and developments.
The possibility of everyone having access to creating the environment is as concerning as it is thrilling. In a world where youth are seeking to be noticed or find acceptance, making a podcast, blog, or a video diary is one way of them getting the chance to speak their opinion. Again, educators can take advantage of this by having students create their own blog or video diary about what they are learning. For example, students can keep a chapter by chapter blog of a novel study (very similar to the “traditionally out-of-date” reflection journals). Students could also immerse themselves in the book, so they could create a video diary of a character within a novel.
My conclusion
Though education is a little behind in incorporating technology and the world of youth in the classroom, we can step up and take the initiative. I would definitely feel competent enough to lead explorations of the digital environment or cultural trends. If I was not completely sure of myself, I could just do a “deep dive” and find out more on my own time. I believe that we are life long learners. We educate students, but in turn they educate us and it is important for us to consider a variety of approaches to teaching.
Citations:
Gasser, U., and Palfrey, J. Learners (Chapter 11). From Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digival Natives. New York: Basic Books.
Johnson, S. (2005). Everything good is bad for you. New York: Riverhead Books.
