Module 5: King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography by Chris Crutcher

Crutcher, Chris. 2003. King of the mild frontier: An ill-advised autobiography. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN-13 978-0-06-050251-5

For readers who know and love Chris Crutcher books like Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Stotan!, or Whale Talk, then his autobiography King of the Mild Frontier: An Ill-Advised Autobiography is one to read. This book features thematic snippets from Crutcher’s life that have influenced his writing, his literary character development, his plot lines, and some of his central book themes. The author covers events in his life from early childhood to young adulthood that have helped shape the writer he is today.

This is a well-written memoir/autobiography by Crutcher, and even people who are unfamiliar with his fiction will enjoy this book. As readers know, autobiographies are not always completely factual. In fact, it is known that the autobiographer sometimes choose to leave out certain incidences or character flaws about themselves because they may not want the public to know about themselves because the truth sometimes can present people in an unflattering way. However, Crutcher does not shy away from the truth and has no qualms about embarrassing himself, but do not let that deceive you. Not everything you read in this autobiography may be exactly true. Crutcher provides the following note of warning to the reader on the copyright page: “Memory is selective and by nature faulty. That statement is probably doubly true for my memory. Add to that my penchant for exaggeration and the fact that I have changed some of the names for obvious reasons, and you may have a memoir that may not stand up to close historical scrutiny. So be it” (Crutcher 2009, copyright page).

The structure of this novel is not told in order from childhood to adulthood but instead laid out as the memories come to Crutcher and one memory triggers the next. In fact, a May/June 2003 Horn Book magazine review says this of the book: Crutcher “moves back and forth in time, as storytellers do, letting one incident connect to the next thematically rather than chronologically.” The same article in Horn Book goes on to describe the book as being told in a series of “episodic” informal essays.

Another great aspect of this novel is Crutcher’s humorous writing style. Readers will laugh over some of the stories involving his older brother tricking Crutcher into doing a variety of stupid things over his childhood that always landed him in trouble, yet his brother John always seemed to get off scot-free. I won’t go into a whole lot of detail, but let me just say there is a peeing on the radiator incident, a BB gun incident, and a Jesus (or should I say Esus) incident that will have the readers laughing and shaking their heads over Crutcher’s gullibility, and yet readers will also be able to relate if they, too, have experienced the torment of an older sibling.

This brings me to another appealing aspect of this book. Crutcher packages his autobiographical essays with humor. The Teacher Librarian (October 2004) says that Crutcher writes this book with the “same humor and insight found in his fiction,” and a February 2004 Teacher Librarian review calls the autobiography and Crutcher’s voice “straightforward, heartrending, often hilarious.” After reading Crutcher’s autobiography, readers are going to appreciate his fiction more and will know what incidences inspired some of his characters and themes, and this will enrich the readers’ experiences as they delve into Crutcher’s fictional worlds.

I recommend this book for young adults from grades 8 on up. The level of reading is accessible to middle schoolers, but some of the content and incidences that Crutcher narrates will most definitely invite censorship and is not suitable to be assigned reading. For example, take the chapter called “Of Oysters and Olives and Things that Go Bump in My Shoe.” This chapter deals with an athletic traditional hazing ritual, naked boys and the items mentioned in the chapter’s title. I will leave the rest to your imagination. This is a good book to read segments from out loud for book talks and to generate interest in Crutcher and his novels. This book could be assigned in literature circles to 11^th and 12^th graders. It is also good for independent reading, and many boys will really enjoy it and his literature. (Girls will probably like his writing style as well.)

Book Review Quotes about the Autobiography:

• School Library Journal, Apr. 2005 says this autobiography is “filled with a winning combination of humorous, nostalgic, and bittersweet anecdotes about his family, school days, "wannabe" athletic career," work, and writing.”

• Horn Book Magazine, May/Jun2003 The book’s “Informal essays invite self-revelation, humor, loose structure, and even moralizing; Crutcher responds to all four elements. He writes in an easy, conversational tone, as if he were sitting down swapping stories with his good friend, the reader.”

Book Cover Art from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/King-Mild-Frontier-Ill-Advised-Autobiography/dp/0060502517/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1290468228&sr=8-1

Module 4: Alanna, The First Adventure from Song of the Lioness Series by Tamora Pierce

Pierce, Tamora. 1983. Alanna: The first adventure. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN-13 978-0-689-87855-8

In the book Alanna, The First Adventure, the first installment in the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce, readers are introduced to ten-year-old Alanna of Trebond fief who ingeniously hatches a plan to switch places with her twin brother Thom and go to Corus to train as a knight under the care of Duke Gareth of Naxen while Thom will go North towards the City of Gods and train as a sorcerer. Thanks to both children’s neglectful father, their plan succeeds. Before leaving Maude, a nurse/witch who trained Alanna and Thom in sorcery as children, Maude reminds Alanna that she has much magic, and she is gifted not just to kill but to heal, and she urges Alanna to heal as much as possible in her new life in order to make up for the killing she must do as a knight. Alanna, disguised as a boy and renamed Alan, heads to Corus with Coram. Once there, her adventures begin as she embarks on her training as a page with the ultimate goal to one day become a knight. Alanna must deal with a rigorous schedule of reading, writing, mathematics, philosophy, history of war, and physical training for knighthood. She makes an enemy of a fourteen-year old boy named Ralon who relentlessly bullies her until she is able to defeat him on her own, and she also gains the friendship, loyalty, and trust of Prince Jonathan and his group of friends—Raoul, Gary, Alex, and Francis as well as the unlikely friendship with George Cooper, King of Thieves, and Knight Myles of Olau, her history of war teacher. Alanna faces many obstacles in her training as page. One of the greatest is her adventure to Bazhir where she and Jonathan face the Ysander (evil, children of gods who like to eat mortals) at the Black City. Readers will be on the edge of their seats as they read this book and wonder, will Alanna manage to keep her gender a secret? Will she make it to squire? Will she survive her encounter with the Ysander? Read Alanna, The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce and find out.

Spoilers Ahead. This is a great fantasy novel for Grades 5-Up. The protagonist of this story, Alanna, ages from 10-13 years during the course of this book, and some of her insecurities and doubts represent many adolescents. As Alanna trains as a page, she wonders at times if she is good enough and worthy enough to become knight. After all, where is the honor in lying about being a boy? She also has to deal with a bully in the character of Ralon, and many adolescents can relate to dealing with bullies. What is awesome about Alanna is her ability to work very hard to overcome her weaknesses and master things she does not have a natural talent for. For example, after enduring many beatings from Ralon, even a broken arm, Alanna practices on her own how to fight and even enlists the help of George Cooper--thief and friend--to teach her how to fight hand-to-hand combat in order to beat Ralon. Probably one of the most satisfying moments in the entire book is when Alanna calls out Ralon and gives him a sound thrashing. It is literally a stand up and clap moment that is a must-read. Alanna also does extra training to build up her fencing skills because she is weak in those as well, and she makes great progress as a swordsman (or should I say woman)?

The story is set in another world and time of knights and chivalry, and Alanna must deal with some serious enemies. Ralon, her bully, is just one of the antagonists she faces. She also must face the evil Ysander who want to eat her, and she has suspicions of Prince Jonathan’s Uncle Roger of Conte as plotting the demise of Jonathan and the rest of the royal family. Tamora Pierce has done an excellent job of creating an adventure that hooks the reader and keeps then hooked throughout Alanna’s adventures. Readers will also appreciate the friendships that Alanna makes with the Prince and the rest of the pages/squires and George Cooper. One of the parts of this novel I liked the best was how Pierce wrote in 3^rd person omniscient, which gave the reader more insight into Alanna’s character and how her friends view her. Alanna is an amazing character. Seventh grader Ming-Lee wrote in the January 23, 2006 Scholastic Scope that she “really liked this book because it’s about how women can be just as strong, and sometimes stronger, than men. It’s about a girl’s journey to find out who she really is.” Ming-Lee’s enjoyment of Alanna’s character is exactly why Tamora Pierce wrote her. Pierce wanted to write about strong female protagonists. A School Library Journal (March 2005) review of “Good Conversation! A Talk with Tamora Pierce” has Pierce explaining to Tim Podell that she “was frustrated by the lack of female warriors and heroines so she began to writing about them herself.” The Christian Science Monitor in July of 1997 says of Alanna, The First Adventure that Alanna is “a strong, inspirational female character. The plot keeps your attention, the characters are memorable, and Alanna is a very real person.” Upon finishing this book, readers are going to find themselves buying the rest in the series to find out how the rest of Alanna’s adventures turn out.

This is a good book to share with tweens and teens in a booktalk or booktrailer as a recommendation for independent reading. It is also a good book for reading with intermediate and middle school students in class. Caution: A few parents may object to the use of magic in this book.

Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Alanna/Tamora-Pierce/e/9780689878558/?itm=2&USRI=alanna+song+of+the+lioness

Module 4: Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Pfeffer, Susan Beth. 2006. Life as we knew it. Boston: Graphia. ISBN 978-0-15-206154-8

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer tells the story of junior Miranda and her family as they struggle to survive the catastrophic events that occur when an asteroid hits the moon and knocks it out of orbit and closer to earth. Following the moon event, Miranda and her family must deal with the effects of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, major changes in weather (such as blizzards), the rationing of food, of gas, of electricity, dangerous neighbors, and a deadly break-out of the flu. The story is told from Miranda’s point-of-view from diary entries beginning in May and ending in March, and the readers get insight through the diary entries into her and her family’s lives as they fight to survive. Read this book to see if Miranda, her family, and her friends survive the year. Will they starve, will they succumb to disease, will they freeze to death, or will they kill each other? Read Life As We Knew It to find out.

Spoilers Ahead: This novel has been classified by some as science fiction and by some as survival fiction; however, this novel really fits into the category of dystopias. Allen Pace Nilsen and Kenneth L. Donelson define dystopias as “usually set in the future, with technology having played a role in establishing the conditions out of which the story grows” (Nilsen and Donelson 2009, 238). This is true of this novel. The story begins with everyone, scientists included, anticipating the event of an asteroid hitting the moon. Everyone is excited to see this astrological event and view it as an innocuous thing, much like the viewing of an eclipse. However, readers find out that the scientists have actually underestimated the mass of the asteroid, and when it hits, it knocks the moon out of orbit and closer to the Earth. That is when various natural disasters ensue, and the events of the story are left to play out. Nilsen and Donelson also say that dystopias tend to be more like fantasies in the sense that “once the situation is established, authors focus less on technology and more on sociological and psychological or emotional aspects of the story” (2009, 238). This is exactly true of this novel. The reader is allowed an inside view into protagonist Miranda’s mindset, feelings, and relationship ups-and-downs with her mother, her brothers, her friends, and her father and his step-wife, just to name a few. This novel is compelling. The structure of the book is set up in diary entries made by Miranda chronicling the first ten months of her life and those in her rural community in the wake of the moon disaster. The pace moves rather quickly in this format. Miranda is a likeable but realistic character who is faced with extraordinary circumstances. Pfeffer does a good job of creating a dynamic character in Miranda. Miranda evolves from a self-centered teen crushing on an Olympic-hopeful skater with dreams of competing in swimming and skating herself. She faces conflicting emotions regarding her parents’ divorce, her mother’s boyfriend, her step-mother and jealousy towards her younger brother. Miranda is also dealing with the aftermath of losing a friend to death and the disintegration of her other friendships as a result. Miranda works much of her issues out through her diary entries and over the course of the tend months that the reader is privy to, and the reader gets to see her evolve into an amazing young woman who is instrumental in her family’s survival.

I highly recommend this book for read-alouds, book talks, book trailers, and independent reading. This book could also be read in Literature Circles for an English or reading class, and it might even be interesting to bring a science teacher into the discussion. Inviting a science teacher in as a special speaker about this topic would be a great way to include real world connections.

Review Excerpts

• The Horn Book Magazine (November/December 2006): “Pfeffer’s taut survival story is effective not because it witnesses these catastrophes firsthand but because it doesn’t.”
• Publisher’s Weekly (10/16/2006):
• “The book may be lengthy, but most readers will find it absorbing from first page to last.”
• “This survival tale…celebrates the fortitude and resourcefulness of human beings during critical times.”
• School Library Journal (Oct. 2006): “Pfeffer tones down the terror, but otherwise crafts a frighteningly plausible account of the local effects of a near-future worldwide catastrophe.”
• Booklist (September 1, 2006): “Each page is filled with events both wearying and terrifying and infused with honest emotions. Pfeffer brings cataclysmic tragedy very close.”

Reference

Nilsen, Alleen Pace , and Kenneth L. Donelson. 2009. Literature for today’s young adults, 8^th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Book Cover Art from Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Life-Knew-Susan-Beth-Pfeffer/dp/0152061541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289235116&sr=8-1

Module 4: Tithe by Holly Black

Black, Holly. 2002. Tithe. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books. ISBN 978-0-689-86704-0

Tithe by Holly Black is the story of sixteen-year-old Kaye Fierch. Something is not quite right about Kaye. She knows it; others know it. She is strange. Kaye used to talk to faeries, her mother is a wannabe, partying, alcoholic rock star who drags Kaye with her wherever she goes in her search for a big break. Kaye does not go to school. She works in order to help provide for her mom and boyfriend; she doesn’t know her father, but that’s okay with Kaye. When Ellen’s boyfriend tries to murder her, Ellen and Kaye pack up and head back to New Jersey to live with Kaye’s grandmother (who disapproves of Ellen’s life and Kaye not being in school.) Once back in New Jersey, Kaye meets up with her childhood friend Janet and goes out with her to a party. At the party, Kaye enchants Kenny, Janet’s boyfriend, and must escape the party after Kenny becomes aggressive in his advances. Upon leaving the party, Kaye meets Roiben, a faerie who works for the Unseelie (the bad faeries). Thus begins Kaye’s reconnection to her childhood faerie friends and her discovery that she is not mortal but actually a changeling who is currently under a strong glamour that makes her appear as though she is human. Kaye finds herself at the center of a fight for power between the Seelie and Unseelie faerie folk and is in danger of becoming a sacrifice (the tithe) for the Unseelie, which will ensure the Unseelie dominion over the independent faeries for seven years. Kaye soon finds herself in a fight for her life. Will she escape the tithe? Will the Unseelie realize she is not mortal? Can faerie knight Roiben and Kaye’s friend Corny help her escape the Unseelie Queen and evil faerie Nephamael? Read tithe and find out.

Holly Black’s fantasy novel Tithe depicts the dark, edgy world of the faerie quite well. The faeries in this novel are far removed from how many think of faeries. They are not innocuous like Tinker Bell. These faeries are dangerous, cruel, and the ultimate tricksters. Main character Kaye has grown up as a mortal but soon finds out that she is a changeling, a pixie. She also finds out that she is at the center of the power struggle between the Seelie and Unseelie fey folk. Black provides much suspense throughout her novel. First, the reader wonders what Kaye is and why she was able to talk with faeries as a child. We also are kept in suspense about the tithe and all the otherworldly folk involved in that. Who can Kaye trust? Her childhood faerie friends, Nephamael (a knight from the Seelie court), Roiben (a dark knight from the Unseelie court who appears to care for Kaye), or Corny (her new friend who has recently been enchanted by Nephamael)? The plot of this story is interesting, and the stakes are high for the characters, especially Kaye, but beware, there is death and gore in this novel. In fact, a September 2009 Kirkus Review says this of Tithe: “Debauchery, despair, deceit, and grisly death—what more could you ask from a fairy tale?” I would say that the Grimm brothers would be proud.

The ending of this story is typical of a fantasy novel in that it leaves off with the sense that there is more adventures and risk to come, and in fact, there are two other novels in this series. The characterization of Kaye is strong. She internally struggles with being good and bad. On one hand she may enchant a young man and relish the power she feels, but feel bad about it in the next moment. Kaye, though the reader comes to find out that she is a changeling, is portrayed as a typical sixteen year old girl who is trying to find out who she is and her place in the world.

Readers who really enjoy fantasy novels, stories dealing with characters from the Mabinogion, and faerie folk will tend to like these novels. However, I would only recommend this novel for a more mature audience, roughly 9^th grade on up due to the graphic language and sexuality. In fact, a School Library Journal (October 2002) review wrote that “the excessive use of obscenities adds little to character development.” In addition to the sexuality and graphic language, this novel has a dark tone, and it is not a light-hearted world to enter into, so those who like lighter, happier settings, this is not the book for them. This book would be a good one to feature in a booktalk and to feature alongside other fantasy or faerie-oriented novels. This is not a book to have on the required reading list at school because it will draw out the censors for the reasons mentioned previously.

Review Exerpts:

• Kirkus Review (9/1/2002): “Kaye is a clever, courageous heroine with an appealingly wry voice, and Roiben is a gloriously damaged and darkly noble tragic hero.”
• Fantasy & Science Fiction (Jan. 2003): Charles De Lint says that Tithe “is literally one of the best fantasies I’ve read in years, never mind it being one of the best debut novels.”

Extras

• An ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
• A Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Finalist
• A New York Public Library Best Book for the Teen Age
• A YALSA Popular Paperback for Young Adults

Book Cover Art from Barnes&Noble:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Tithe/Holly-Black/e/9780613734561/?itm=4&USRI=tithe+holly+black