"A Child Called It" by David Pelzer

4 of 5 stars.

The Basics: This is a first-person narration of an extreme case of child abuse. David's mother starts off as a loving, caring parent but as David gets older, he becomes the focus of her brutality. She takes out her anger on him solely, though he has four other brothers. David's retelling of the hell he endured throughout his young life is chronicled in the book. Luckily, he is taken from his home after the nurse at his school notices continued bruises and his teacher notices that he is obviously going through something beyond what they could even imagine when he goes home from school each day.

My Thoughts: I have read some reviews that question David's reliability as he reflects back on his abusive childhood, and I could see why those questions would arise. It is so hard to imagine what he went through, but this type of brutality does happen in our world. I just questioned why his mother chose to make him the focus of her anger? It did not make sense to me because he really didn't explain it. Also, he did not explain why the shift happened with his mother. As the reader, we knew that both his mother and father were drinkers but why did his mom turn from a loving, doting parent to a brute?
Also, it seemed very odd that his father would do nothing to help him. I do find it hard to believe that David endured all of this and his father just stood by because he did not want to upset his mother. The "gas chamber", the deprivation of food, and by far the worst part of the brutality was when his mother stabbed him. That was horrible! How could his father do nothing as he saw that his son was having the life drained from him. I feel as though his father was just as culpable as his mother because he stood by and did nothing though he knew what was going on.
This book is hard to read because of the brutality, but it was insightful and makes the reader happy that David survived through this abuse.


~Remember, teachers read fun stuff too!

"We Were Liars" by E. Lockhart

4 of 5 stars. 

The Basics: Cadence is a Sinclair. Her family is wealthy and owns their own island where each of her grandfather's daughters have their own house. She and the Liars (Johnny, Mirren and Gat) enjoy each other's company every summer until a fire changes everything. Her cousins, Mirren and Johnny, are the closest things Cadence has to best friends. They are all a few months apart, Cady being the oldest. She falls in love with Gat and they become inseperable every summer.
During Summer Fifteen, everything changes which causes Cady to have terrible headaches and unexplained amnesia. We don't find out the truth about the Liars until the end of the book.   

My Thoughts: This book was wonderful! I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was definitely confused about some parts of the novel because I didn't know what to believe. I couldn't figure out if Cady's perspective was true or if what she was seeing was accurate. Then, when I got to the end of the book, I was like, OMG, I have to read the whole book over again. LOL!
Lockhart does a great job in building the reader's suspense because you want to keep reading to figure out what happened leading up to Cady's accident. One thing that did annoy me was the extensive metaphors. Figurative language is great, but when it confuses the reader completely, then that's a problem.
I did participate in the read along at Bookish Lifestyle. Click here for discussion one and click here for discussion two.

~Remember, teachers read fun stuff too!

"A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry

5 of 5 stars!

The Basics: This play follows the Younger family during the mid 1900s (around 1950/1960). Three generations of the Younger family live in a small two-bedroom apartment on the south-side of Chicago. The matriarch of the family, Mama, is expecting a large insurance check from her deceased husband. Walter Lee Younger, her son, has big plans for the money which include investing in a liquor store with a man the family deems as unfavorable. As the play continues, we learn that Ruth has some unexpected news, Walter disappoints his family, and Beneatha is learning what it means to be a women with her own ideas and dreams. 

My Thoughts: Where has this book been all of my life? OMG! I feel like I've been missing out. This classic should have been something I read a long time ago. The plot is reminiscent of the true life of an African-American family during this time period. The characters have so much to give to the audience and can be analyzed so deeply that it makes a great novel study. My eighth-grade students read this as part of an interdisciplinary project. We did not get to analyze the book as much as I would like because it was during first quarter (the busiest and craziest time of the school year).

Throughout the book, I wanted to hate Walter, but I found that he was struggling with the weight of the world. He wanted to fight against stereotypes and be everything that the world told him he couldn't be. He just went about doing it the wrong way. I love that Hansberry allows us to grow with the characters and understand their perspective, though we may not agree with their approach.

~Remember, teachers read fun stuff too!