We,
Us,
Can rescue them.
The door is open now.
I must not close it,
Until all the children,
Get out.
Jonathan Kozol writes compellingly about the ghettos of New York City. His book opened that door for me and left me asking, "Is this the America I live in? And if it is, what can I do to make it better?"
PAM MILLER
Shepherdstown, WV
Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Although I majored in English, I didn't read these books until I was out of college. I wish I had. They're very different, but they have a great deal to say to juniors and seniors about the way the world is, for better and worse.
DAN VERNER (Fairfax County Public Schools English teacher for 32 years, retired)
Manassas VA
Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. An epic story of good versus evil, and one which shows that there are heroes in all of us.
The Iron Tower, by Dennis L. McKiernan. An age-appropriate tale for high-school juniors and seniors, similar to the Lord of the Rings. This tale, too, has a message of how each of us can rise to the occasion in times of great peril.
The Earth Sea trilogy, by Ursula LeGuin. A great coming-of-age tale of Ged and others.
In the Forests of Sere, by Patricia McKillip. In fact any of the McKillip books fit the bill, for her prose is flawless and rings of poetry (though it is not poetry per se).
Caverns of Socrates, by Dennis L. McKiernan. A splendid tale of adventurers trapped in a virtual reality, and of a group of scientists attempting to free them. This book explores the nature of reality, whether or not an artificial intelligence can have a soul, and whether or not humans have souls (i.e., duality versus physicality). Yet those themes are underlying a thundering good adventure, one that grabs the reader by the throat and pulls him into the tale and holds him there until the end.
DENNIS MCKIERNAN
High school seniors and juniors should read at least one book addressing gay identity, as many of them [at least one in ten] may already be gay or lesbian--and there is SUCH a rich literature by, for and about our community. ANNIE ON MY MIND by Nancy Garden, RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE by Rita Mae Brown, and THE NECESSARY HUNGER by Nina Revoyr are "young adult" classics about coming of age as a lesbian in different race and class contexts. I well recall driving to Bethesda Library in 1978 at age 16, with my brand-new driver's license, to check out RUBYFRUIT JUNGLE [and today I am an award-winning author myself.] LAMBDA BOOK REPORT, distributed at Lambda Rising Bookstore here in D.C., and the bookstore itself both offer thoughtful selections of books for gay youth and their allies.
BONNIE J. MORRIS, Ph.D
Women's Studies Program
George Washington University
Washington, DC
There are two excellent books for older teens that would likely go
undiscovered, which would be unfortunate. Your request invites
teachers, parents and students to submit suggestions. I'm hoping the
fact I'm a small press publisher in addition to being a parent won't
interfere with that.
JUST ONE: CONNECTING WITH A GRANDMOTHER'S LIFE by Esther Gerstenfeld
Erman was published in 2003. It is an autobiographical novel based on
the author's conversations with her mother over the course of 50 years,
and tells the story of a young woman's discovery of the importance of
family and tradition.
From a village in Poland to the streets of America{lcub}hellip{rcub} From the ashes of a
family destroyed to the resurgence of life{lcub}hellip{rcub} After a life filled with
both great heights of happiness and bitter depths of tragedy, Estera
Wolinsky perishes in a gas chamber at Treblinka. Of her many loved
ones, only one daughter survives. Estera's soul cries out in pain and
loss. But then her spirit, summoned back to Earth by her
granddaughter's longing, begins a journey that will transform both her
and the child.
The growing child struggles to reconcile the conflicting cultures of
her immigrant parents and American society. Only as she learns the full
scope of her grandmother's life from her own mother's
stories--preserving memories and linking the generations--does she find
the strength to claim her own identity and move on to the future.
"...Esther Erman has transformed the experiences and tales of her
family into a compelling, moving, life-filled novel...[S]he has given
us a novel that captures the experience of European Jewry in the last
century. This book is a remarkable achievement." --Arthur Kurzweil,
author of From Generation to Generation
"Full of rich and often painful Jewish history ... folklore and ...
customs. ... Convincing and absorbing in its details of Jewish life,
this story makes for fascinating reading." --Romantic Times Bookclub
"This isn't the type of book I would normally pick off a shelf because
I don't like historicals. I like science fiction mostly. I'm glad I
read it. I would tell my friends to read this book. I liked it so much
that I made time to read it." -- S.F., 13 years old, California
Books and language have always been ESTHER ERMAN'S passion -- a love
second only to her family. Her first book, JUST ONE, is a novelized
retelling of her grandmother's story, as related by her mother over
many years. Born in Germany soon after World War II, Esther's a
California transplant from New Jersey and now a grandmother herself.
Active in the community of writers, Esther's schedule includes teaching
adult ESL, judging writing contests, and trying to keep up with all her
new writing ideas. Previous publications include stories, articles, and
a doctoral dissertation about the post-Holocaust fate of the Yiddish
language.
Esther's website -- www.EstherErman.com -- contains photographs of the real
people whose story Just One tells.
The other book I would like to recommend is THE MOON PAINTERS by
author/poet Suzanne Burns. It tells the story of a young woman torn
between her own dreams and her parents' wishes, who goes on a journey
of self-discovery with her closest friend, who is dying from bulimia.
Come ride through California and Oregon with two sixteen-year-olds,
Maggie Malone and Julia Chandler, as they come-of-age on the open road.
Maggie is struggling for independence from a father who insists she
give up her dream of becoming an artist to work in his bank. Julia is
struggling with an eating disorder. When they meet two older boys
traveling cross-country in a vintage van, the adventure of a lifetime
ensues. What will happen to these best friends on their odyssey for
self-discovery and self-acceptance, and will they ultimately survive
their journey?
THE MOON PAINTERS is SUZANNE BURNS'S first young adult novel. Suzanne
has published two books of poetry and a short story collection in
addition to her earlier novel at Zumaya, THE DREAM TREE. She is
