John GreenGenre: YA
Published: 2005
Personal Rating: 3.5/5
Yearly Count: 39
Sixteen year old, Miles of Florida, decides he wants to attend his father's boarding school in Alabama. With no fond memories of his past school years, he hopes to discover new friends and a new life. Miles's new roommate takes him under his wing and includes him in his group, a group that is experienced in smoking, drinking, and s*x. As it often does when mixing 16 year olds and unlawful acts, tragedy strikes.
I was surprised by the contents in this book. I know that there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding it and frankly, I believe it's a bit too much for young adults. However, that's not why I rated it a 3.5. The rating comes from not connecting with several unique characters and a story line that was okay, but really didn't go anywhere. In general, I enjoyed the book, but ultimately I ended with disappointed feelings.
I recently read this one, too, Joy -- and I was shocked by some of the content, too.
ReplyDeleteI generally have a pretty high tolerance for YA literature, recognizing that kids are living in a world in which no holds are barred anywhere anymore. It's not a good thing in many cases.
There was much in this book to like, though, but I got to "the scene" (and I'll bet you know exactly what I'm talking about!), and I about hyperventilated!
Eleanor ~ LOL I had many errors in my post. I'm surprised you could understand what I was saying. :)
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what scene you are talking about and GEEEEEZ!!! I was surprised in one sense, but then again I knew of the controversy so I expected something.
In my opinion, the first half or so was much better than the second half.
I don't get it; why is that too much for young adults? I'm honestly curious, because when I see this statement it has way less to do with the reviewer actually thinking that teens would be shocked and appalled (they wouldn't, and aren't) and more to do with the reviewers comfort level and experiences about sex and related issues as "taboo". I think it can be an irresponsible statement to make; it can devalue teen readers. This is not an accusation, though! Just a thought for reflection.
ReplyDeleteThere was actually a discussion about this recently here, and I thought one of the comments totally nailed it: "Calling certain things "too explicit", as my 19-y.o. points out, is often largely a way of shielding adults from thinking about reality.
I liked this book, mostly for the spiritual elements (I did like his second novel more). It was really haunting, and I believe a good bit of it was born out of Green's time as a chaplain. His Printz speech is well worth a read.
Bottle of Shine ~ We are all entitled to an opinion. I simply shared my thoughts about the book as I do every book and you have shared yours as well. I will not have a debate about it. Thanks for understanding.
ReplyDeleteGood answer, Joy. Bottle of Shine seems to be Bottle of Anything Goes.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested, I wrote about LFA as well. But my angle was the American Library Association giving it an award for kids as young as twelve without providing notice as to potentially inappropriate content. See Porn Pushers - The ALA and Looking For Alaska - One Example of How the ALA Pushes Porn On Children. Perhaps most interestingly, I received letters critical of my comments and I responded as shown on that page. I think you'll be interested in that.
There is absolutely no indication you don't welcome critical discussion or differing opinions anywhere on your site. You might want to fix that.
ReplyDeleteWhat I don't understand and what I'm really I'm really sort of shocked about how rude you and your other commenter were to me acting like I should have known better to say anything. I didn't, but I do now, so thanks?
But seriously? I make my comment and get corrected and someone else insults me and that's a-okay? Bottle of "Anything Goes"? How immature and unnecessary was that? I don't know if you mean to foster a negative comment space, but I'll just refrain from leaving you comments in the future.
I'm sorry for troubling you! :D
Bottle of Over Reaction?
ReplyDeleteSafelibraries ~ Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteBottle of Shine ~ I'm sorry you felt I was rude. That was not my intention.
I'm not responsible for what Safelibraries said, but she has a right to her opinion, as well as you did.
I respect your decision to not comment in the future.
I read a review about this book somewhere else, and I think the person (can't remember who!) also talked about the content. Wow--reading some of the previous comments! ;) [wrote first sentence *before* seeing the dialogue above. Don't we keep our blogs for our own opinions? Anyway...don't want to create anymore offensive comments, so I'm done. Ha! Oh Joy...
ReplyDeleteTrish ~ :)
ReplyDelete