The cover and the great title caught my eye when this came into the library. I am fascinated by funeral homes and the work they do. I was a big fan of Six Feet Under. After attending four funerals this year for loved ones, I pulled Putting Makeup On Dead People by Jen Violi from my shelf of good intentions and finally read it. I am so glad I did. This is a great story about a teen trying to figure out who they are. Donna lost her father four years ago. She is mostly invisible at school. She hangs out with girls but wouldn’t call any of them dear friends. That is until Liz shows up in the middle of senior year. Liz is fearless and would rather be friends with Donna than the “in crowd.” A great friendship grows. The book begins with a funeral of a classmate. Donna didn’t know her well but when to her viewing since everyone else was. This brought back memories of he father’s funeral. The family who runs the business remembers her and a conversation starts. Donna is fascinated with funerals, embalming and especially reconstruction and make up. Donna graduates and to her mother’s dismay, decides to go to mortuary school and work for Brighten Brothers funeral home. She even moves into the funeral home to be closer to work. Readers will learn about how people are prepared for burial. Each chapter ends with a deceased person who is part of the narrative. Donna discovered much about herself during this time. She becomes involved with a boy for the first time. One of my favorite parts of the book takes place when she decides this boy isn’t right for her and then is assertive enough to pursue the one who is. There is also a great story line about an aunt that the family shuns because of her unorthodox religious ways. The family is strict Catholic. I very much enjoyed this book, especially the references to Dayton and Yellow Springs. I’ve never been to Yellow Springs and now need to make the trip.
Some ideas for discussing with teens:
Do you know what you want to do as a career? What inspired you to choose that?
Talk about how Donna felt invisible in high school. What do you think made her change how she felt about herself? Have you ever felt that way?
Discuss this passage, “Sitting in class, I realize something feels familiar. I don’t really know any of my classmates. I haven’t spoken up much in class. Other than being fascinated by all of the subject matter, this feels like Woodmont, where all I wanted was to disappear. But I don’t want to be back at Woodmont, and I find I don’t want to be invisible here. Which means making myself noticed, something that I’m not used to doing.” (pg. 271)
Talk about Donna’s friendship with Liz. If you could create a friend what would you want them to be like?
Discuss what Donna finds appealing about Tim. What does she like about Charlie?
Discuss the part when Donna realizes she doesn’t like Tim.
Talk about Donna’s aunt. Do you have a relative no one likes to talk about?
Discuss how Donna reacts when her mother starts dating.
Discuss this passage,”I think of Patty strutting around Woodmont like she owned the place, a feeling I never had there. But a this moment, I know I’m in my element. I know Patty and I aren’t so separate. And I understand, I think for the first time, what it means to love the whole person.” (pg. 295)
Talk about what it means to have a back up band, people who loved you and are gone and are watching over you. Who would they be?
Talk about what it means to do a ritual.
Lately I’ve fallen in love with a series only to be a bit disappointed in book 2. This was not the case with The Elite, book 2 in Keira Cass’s The Selection series. I loved this book! America is still in the palace, still the favorite of Prince Maxom now that the group is down to six. America is still torn between her growing feelings for Maxom and her history with Aspen. As she moves closer to Maxom something horrible happens that makes her want to forget how much she is starting to care for him. Oh… and I love the secret library! I read this book in 24 hours. I couldn’t put it down. Cass pulls me in with the fashions, the drama, America’s spirit and need to do what is right. Prince Maxom is dreamy and I am rooting for them to be together. I am amazed how patient he is with America, wanting her to truly return his feelings. So I became very frustrated when Maxom starts to show interest in some of the other girls. The discussion of the caste system continues to be a great dystopian storyline. We get a glimpse of how this came to be from the secret library. I can’t wait for book 3. I look forward to more world building and hope we will get more answers to how this world came to be. I wish I didn’t have to wait until next year. I discovered there is a novella called The Prince that is available in e book form. It is a story from the view of Prince Maxom. This will have to tide me over until then.
Partridge and Pressia live in two different worlds. Partridge lives in a Dome, protected from the holocaust of bomb detonations outside. His body does not have any scars and is in perfect shape. Pressia lives in the real world where everyone has visible scars, burns and has things fused to them that they were near during the detonations. Pressia has a doll’s head fused to her hand and burns on her face. Partridge does something no one else has ever done. He escapes the Dome to search for his mother. He thinks of her as a saint who tried to help others and didn’t make it to the Dome on time. She might still be alive. He has to know for sure. But his escape comes a little to easily as he finds out why the hard way. He is being watched and why would they let him go? Pressia is hiding from the OSR, the troops that are organizing an uprising. When she turns 16 she will be forced to join them or become live target practice for new recruits. While running she meets Partridge in the street. She agrees to help him and takes him to a local underground leader named Bradwell. Bradwell has living birds fused into his back. The OSR wants her to be an officer, but she can’t understand why. Each of the characters in the ashen world have something, or an animal or someone fused to their bodies. Each are horrifying and imaginative. The characters are multidimensional and interesting. Partridge and Pressia have a connection that readers will not see coming. Julianna Baggott is a master world builder. She creates two dystopian worlds that are different but equally disturbing. The two things that freaked me out the most were the dusts. The people fused to the earth who prey upon the living by pulling them into the earth and feeding on them. But the most horrific were the mother soldiers who have their children fused to them. Both child and mother are alive, but the child cannot grow because the mother’s body cages them. The story is brilliant, fast paced and very well written. I highly recommend this for fans of dystopian teen lit.
Just a week after the horrifying events at Sandy Hook Elementary, This Is Not A Drill by Beck McDowell came into the library. It was a chilling coincidence. I showed it to my colleagues and we debated whether we even wanted to read it. The pain of the recent events was still very raw but I felt someone should read it and so I checked it out. It sat on my “book shelf of good intentions” for several weeks before I picked it up. I am very glad that I did. McDowell tells the story of two teens, Emery and Jake who volunteer to teach French to a class of first graders. They are there when a father, who is a veteran of the Iraq War, comes in demanding to leave with his son. He is in a custody battle with his wife. The soldier is suffering from severe PTSD like so many of our brave men and women who come home. The two teens try to take care of the children after something happens to the teacher. I won’t give away what happens. Just read it. The story is told in alternating voices of Emery and Jake. We learn that Emery and Jake were in a relationship that ended badly. During this tragedy they also try to sort out their feelings for each other. I read this in one day, I couldn’t put it down.
I have battled weight for the last decade and recently lost 55 pounds through a rather extreme program so I was very curious about Skinny when it came into the library. Ever is a 15-year-old who is obese at 302 pounds. Her mother died when she was young and she filled the painful void with eating. Her mother struggled with her weight before cancer took her and Ever inherited her mother’s challenges. The part when she talked about how her mother makes everything better with food struck me hard. I am that way and need to remember not to pass that habit onto my children. Ever deals with bullying and cruel insults from her classmates, but the worst bully of all is the voice inside her. Ever calls her “Skinny.” Skinny is the voice that tells her she is no good and that no one will ever love her and everyone is laughing at her even if no one is. Ever has an incredible singing voice that few people ever hear. She would love to be part of the musical but her weight keeps her from doing anything. Ever decides to have risky surgery to make her stomach smaller to lose weight. As Ever shrinks in size she realizes her cruel passenger, Skinny, is harder to shake. Ever learns about friendship and how she was the one who held herself back for so long. The author, Donna Cooner underwent this same type of surgery. This book is a very real, moving story of a teen who summons up the bravery to change and the true friend who helps her through it. Cooner does not sugar coat how difficult this transition is for her character. This book is much more than a weight loss book. It shows how a person can change and the reward of taking such a leap. I couldn’t put this down and I miss the characters now that the book is over.
