It's Not About the Bike

Bibliography

Armstrong, Lance. It's Not About the Bike. 2000. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons ISBN # 0-399-14611-3

Critical Analysis

Lance Armstrong's memoir It's Not About the Bike is an honest and direct synopsis of his rise to the top of the cycling world and his battle with testicular cancer. This inside look allows Armstrong fans to go beyond what they read from press and magazines and get the inside scoop on the Tour de France champion. Armstrong's portrayal of himself as a rowdy child and teen living with his hardworking, single mother provides many humorous anecdotes while also giving the background to his determined personality in adulthood. Perhaps the most entertaining story is that of the game Armstrong coined called "fireball," which consisted of soaking a tennis ball in kerosene, lighting it on fire and throwing it back and forth while wearing garden gloves. It's ideas like this that make It's Not About the Bike a great read for reluctant, young adult, male readers but might make parents wish it came with a "Do Not Try This at Home" warning label on it. 

Armstrong's approach to describing his cancer battle is direct and matter-of-fact. Though his emotions play a role in his retelling, he details his chemotherapy treatments, doctor's visits, MRI's and X-rays with medical precision and honesty. Determined would be the best word to describe his outlook on cancer, cycling and life.  

Book Discussion Questions

1. Lance Armstrong's mother plays a large role in his life, as detailed in the book. How does their relationship effect Lance in cycling, his cancer battle and life in general?

2. Lance is often forced to make some difficult decisions, whether it be in cycling or deciding between oncologists. Discuss his decision making process and any decisions you might have made differently.

3. What are some of the parallels between Lance's race approach and life approach? What are some of the differences?

4. How would some of Lance's experiences have been different if he were not a successful, famous cyclist? 

5. Lance receives an email from a man in the military stationed in Asia that was a fellow cancer patient that says "you don't know it yet, but we're the lucky ones." What did the man mean? At that time Lance doesn't understand what he means. Do you think that by the end of his battle he understood?

External Assessments

"In 1996, young cycling phenom Armstrong discovered he had testicular cancer. In 1999, he won the Tour de France. Now he's a grateful husband, a new fatherAand a memoirist: with pluck, humility and verve, this volume covers his early life, his rise through the endurance sport world and his medical difficulties. Cancer "was like being run off the road by a truck, and I've got the scars to prove it," Armstrong declares. Earlier scars, he explains, came from a stepfather he casts as unworthy; early rewards, from his hardworking mother and from the triathlons and national bike races Armstrong won as a Texas teen. "The real racing action was over in Europe": after covering that, Armstrong and Jenkins (Men Will Be Boys, with Pat Summit, etc.) ascend to the scarier challenges of diagnoses and surgeries. As he gets worse, then better, Armstrong describes the affections of his racing friends and of the professionals who cared for him. Armstrong is honest and delightful on his relationship to wife Kristin (Kik), and goes into surprising detail about the technology that let them have a child. The memoir concludes with Armstrong's French victory and the birth of their son. The book features a disarming and spotless prose style, one far above par for sports memoirs. Bicycle-racing fans will enjoy the troves of inside information and the accounts of competitions, but Armstrong has set his sights on a wider meaning and readership: "When I was sick I saw more beauty and triumph and truth in a single day than I ever did in a bike race."- Esther Newberg, Publisher's Weekly

A Northern Light

Biography

Donnelly, Jennifer. A Northern Light. 2003. New York, NY: Harcourt Inc. ISBN 0-15-216705-6

Critical Analysis

Jennifer Donnelly's novel A Northern Light has something for everyone- romance, mystery, history, murder and more. Mattie Grokey's story grips readers from the first page and keeps them hanging on until the very last. Donnelly goes back in forth through two stories so eloquently that they intertwine seamlessly in the end. Mattie, a sixteen year old aspiring to be a famous writer and a college graduate, lives on a farm with her father and three sisters that she has taken care of since her mother died of breast cancer. Mattie is constantly stuck between a rock and a hard place with an influential teacher encouraging her bright future at a college that she has already been accepted to and a father who needs her help at home and doesn't appreciate her desire to learn. It doesn't help when Royal Loomis, a wealthy and handsome young man, sets his sites on Mattie creating yet another dilemma in her already complicated situation. These types of issues are what make A Northern Light easy to relate to despite it being set in 1906. The situations Mattie deals with in the twentieth century are nearly identical to what teens face in the twenty-first century. She wants to go to college but cannot afford it. She loves to read and her friends and family don't understand why. Her mother passes away after battling breast cancer. Examples such as these that jump the time gap are prevalent throughout the book.


Although the story is mostly Mattie's, readers will find themselves wanting to know more about Grace Brown, a young pregnant woman found dead in the lake by the hotel that Mattie is working at for the summer. As Mattie uncovers more about her by reading the letters that Grace had asked her to burn hours before her untimely death the audience slowly puts the puzzle pieces together. Donnelly's skillful alternation between Mattie's story before working at the hotel and her summer working there creates an anticipatory buildup leaving the reader hanging on every word, anxiously awaiting to figure out the truth.


Book Group Ideas
Mattie and her best friend Weaver have "word duels" often throughout the book where they start out with a word and go back and forth with synonyms of that word. Have a word duels with the list of characters below. Write down the words as you say them and go back and discuss why you chose that word to describe the character afterwards.


Mattie, Weaver, Royal Loomis, Lawton, Aunt Josie, Miss Wilcox, Emma Hubbard, Mr. Gokey, Cook, Minnie, Daisy, Pleasant


External Assessment
Michael L. Printz Honor Book


"Mattie Gokey, 16, a talented writer, promised her dying mother that she would always take care of her father and younger siblings. She is stuck on a farm, living in near poverty, with no way of escaping, even though she has been accepted at Barnard College. She promises to marry handsome Royal Loomis even though he doesn't appear to love her. Now, Mattie has promised Grace Brown, a guest at the Adirondack summer resort where she works, to burn two bundles of letters. Then, before she can comply, Grace's body is found in the lake, and the young man who was with her disappears, also presumably drowned. This is a breathtaking tale, complex and often earthy, wrapped around a true story. In 1906, Grace Brown was killed by Chester Gillette because she was poor and pregnant, and he hoped to make his fortune by marrying a rich, society girl. Grace's story weaves its way through Mattie's, staying in the background but providing impetus. The protagonist tells her tale through flashback and time shifts from past to present. Readers feel her fears for her friend Weaver-the first freeborn child in his family-when he is beaten for being black and his college savings are stolen, and enjoy their love of words as they engage in language duels. Finally, they'll experience her awakening when she realizes that she cannot live her life for others. Donnelly's characters ring true to life, and the meticulously described setting forms a vivid backdrop to this finely crafted story. An outstanding choice for historical-fiction fans, particularly those who have read Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy."-Lisa Prolman, School Library Journal

Hole in My Life

Bibliography

Gantos, Jack. Hole in My Life. 2002. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN 978-0-374-43089-4

Critical Analysis

Jack Gantos holds nothing back as he depicts his haphazard, young adult mistakes that land him in prison in his early twenties in his memoir Hole in My Life. Gantos' passion for writing and literature is woven in with every adventure he relates. As he grasps for something to write about he realizes that his "biggest problem with writing was that [he] didn't have anything worthwhile to write about" because nothing exciting ever happened to him. His wish for something adventurous to write about certainly came true when he gets himself into a drug smuggling partnership and sails from St. Croix to New York with hundreds of pounds of hash and a strange British sailing partner named Hamilton who prefers to walk around the boat naked. Inevitably they get caught and Gantos lands himself in prison for fifteen months. With these facts in hand, the reader's first instinct is to assume that Gantos is just another underprivileged, uneducated teen who fell in with a bad crowd, but Gantos' counteracts these assumptions with a heavy dose of literary name dropping. He goes on a trip to see the homes of Hemingway and Stephen Crane. He reads poetry, classic literature and takes photos of the doors of writer's rooms at the hotel Chelsea. He defies the stereotype of a pot-smoking drug-seller purely with his knowledge and love of literature.

Despite Gantos' frustrating decisions that get him into more trouble than he can handle, readers will find themselves on his side, hoping he doesn't get caught and put in prison for selling hash. This controversial approach is finally counterbalanced when the wife of a former buyer asks him "did you ever consider what it could do to the people who bought it?" This is the first and arguably the only time the reader sees Gantos think beyond himself and his desire to write. He says he "was beginning to feel how I had screwed up more lives than just my own." Even though the reader is rooting for Gantos, it is a relief to see him finally look past himself, even for just a fleeting moment. 

Young adults will love to read Hole in My Life if only for the seemingly off-limits topics approached in the memoir. The theme of the entire memoir is based around the selling and using of drugs and the prison references can be rather graphic and sexual making this book appropriate for mature young adults grades 10 and up.

Book Group Ideas

In his memoir Hole in My Life Jack Gantos mentions several writing exercises to spur his creative writing. Write any and everything that comes to your mind about the memoir for five minutes. Discuss some of the thoughts with the book group and any other ideas that may pop into your mind as you discuss.

External Assessment

"The compelling story of the author's final year in high school, his brushes with crime, and his subsequent incarceration. Gantos has written much about his early years with his eccentric family, and this more serious book picks up the tale as they moved to Puerto Rico during his junior year. He returned to Florida alone, living in a seedy motel while he finished high school and realized that his options for college weren't great. A failed drug deal cost him most of his savings and he joined his family, now in St. Croix, where he accepted an offer of $10,000 to help sail a boat full of hash to New York. He and his colleagues were caught, and as it turns out, he was in more trouble than he anticipated. Sent to federal prison for up to six years, Gantos landed a job in the hospital section, a post that protected him from his fellow inmates, yet allowed him to witness prison culture firsthand. Much of the action in this memoir-some of it quite raw and harsh-will be riveting to teen readers. However, the book's real strength lies in the window it gives into the mind of an adolescent without strong family support and living in the easy drug culture of the 1970s. Gantos looks for role models and guidance in the pages of the books he is reading, and his drive to be a writer and desire to go to college ultimately save him."-
Barbara Scotto, School Library Journal

Awards: American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults; American Library Association Notable Children's Books; American Library Association Popular Paperbacks for Young Readers; Michael L. Printz Award - Honor; Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year; Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library; Parents' Choice Award Winner; Booklist Editors' Choice; Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Award; Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List; School Library Journal Best Books of the Year; Robert F. Sibert Award - Honor; Massachusetts Children's Book Award

  

Specials

Bibliography

Westerfeld, Scott. Specials. 2006. New York, NY: Simon Pulse ISBN 13-978-0-689-86540-4

Critical Analysis

Pretties leaves readers on such a cliffhanger that they feel compelled to jump right into the last book of the trilogy Specials- bungee jacket on or not. In Specials, Tally's world changes again in a big way, going from a regular "bubblehead" pretty to a cruel, "icy," superhuman Special Circumstance pretty. Readers will find that despite her extraordinary lifestyle and "special circumstances," Tally still closely resembles the seemingly selfish and self-serving character she has in the first two books of the series. Much like real teenage world, her once best friend turned enemy, Shay, is suddenly her best friend again, she flutters between love interests Zane and David, not making a choice until the choice is made for her and all the while she has an inner struggle to decide who she is inside, "whether ugly or pretty or special." 

Although Tally has been "tricky" and defiant her entire life, she still clings to the fact that "someone was always forcing her to join their side" and things kept happening to her "because of threats, accidents, lesions in her brain, and surgery changing her mind for her" which is "not exactly her fault." Contradictory to this Tally struggles to get control of her mind and makes disobedient decisions often throughout the book. This juxtaposition can be frustrating as the reader waits for Tally to take responsibility for at least some of her actions and their results. Even in the end with Tally's acceptance of her part in the war the reader is still left with the taste of a egotistical main character in their mouth. 

Discussion Questions

1. What changes did Tally make from Pretties to Specials?
2. What changes did Tally make from the beginning of the book to the end?
3. What do you think happened to Dr. Cable after Tally left? 
4. If Zane did not die, would Tally still have ended up with David? Why or Why not?
5. At what stage did you like Tally's character the best, ugly, pretty or special, and why?

External Assessments

"Grade 8 Up–This final installment in the series is a warning of the dangers of overconsumption and conformity. Set some time in the future, after a human-made bacteria destroyed the modern world, the trilogy tells of new cities established and tightly controlled through brainwashing and a series of operations leading to a compliant society. Tally Youngblood, the 16-year-old protagonist, learns in the first two books that free will and truth are more important than a false sense of security. In Specials, she has become an elite fighting machine, fully enhanced with nanotechnology and super-fast reflexes, and made to work as a Special Circumstances agent for the nameless city that she fled. As in the first two books, much of the story takes place with characters whizzing through the air on hoverboards, but Tally and her friends are in for some harsh realities here. Readers who enjoyed Uglies and Pretties (both S & S, 2005) will not want to miss Specials, but those who have not read those books will not understand much of what is happening. Westerfeld's themes include vanity, environmental conservation, Utopian idealism, fascism, violence, and love. In this trilogy, the author calls for a revolution in our hearts and minds–think The Matrix". –Corinda J. Humphrey, School Library Journal

Pretties

Bibliography

Westerfeld, Scott. Pretties. 2005. New York, NY: Simon Pulse ISBN 978-0-689-86539-8

Critical Analysis

Lovers of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies get to see the other side of the coin in the sequel Pretties. When Tally Youngblood sacrifices herself to help find a cure for all the brain damaged pretties and undergoes the risky operation to become pretty herself she finally gets to see the life she had longed for for so long. The only problem is, now that Tally has had a taste of the pretty life, why would she ever want to be cured?

Westerfeld jumps right into the New Pretty Town setting as Tally gets ready for a party. Immediately the new, "pretty" changes in Tally are evident. She prefers "formal white-tie or black-tie parties" that became fun once "everyone got drunk." However, many of Tally's resilient qualities are still present and shine through despite her new personality and surroundings. Tally's ability to stay inherently herself, which is not always a good thing since she can often be selfish and self-absorbed, bring a touch of reality to the dystopian, sci-fi feel of the book. Though set in the future with talking walls and hoverboards, human nature still exists and is shown in different ways through each of the characters, making the novel relevant to young readers of today.

Westerfeld makes some strong social statements in Pretties, much like he did in Uglies, but takes them to a deeper level with brief descriptions on how life as we know it now ceases to exist. He describes the burning of trees , war and "the oil-transforming bacteria" that was released into which stopped the "Rusty civilization" and saved the planet. In an encounter Tally has on a reservation of wild people she recalls being taught at school about how in the past there was the "custom of assigning different tasks to men and women. And it was usually women who got the crappy jobs." Perhaps the most controversial mentioning of the book is when Tally is mistaken as a god and remembers that "God" was "the old Rusty word for their invisible superheroes in the sky." Such taboo subject matter makes for great discussion, no matter where the reader stands on the subject. 

Even with an often dis-likable main character, Pretties still shows readers what they've been wondering since the first book in the trilogy- what is life really like as a pretty?

Discussion Questions

1. What changed about Tally from Uglies to Pretties? What stayed the same?
2. Who is Tally a good friend to? Who is a good friend to Tally? What makes someone a good friend?
3. What do you think would have happened if Tally took the pill that Zane did? What would she have done in that situation? Why did the author have Zane take that pill and not Tally?
4. Do you think Tally would go back to being ugly if she had the choice? Why or why not?
5. Who is a better match for Tally, Zane or David? Why?

External Assessment

"This sequel to Uglies (S & S, 2005) continues to provide a gripping look at a dystopian future, but does not stand on its own. Tally, the protagonist of the first book, has forgotten all that she did as an Ugly and has completely embraced the mindless life of a New Pretty, going to parties, drinking heavily, and thinking of nothing more than the next bit of entertainment. It is not until one of the Uglies from New Smoke comes and delivers a message for her that leads her to two pills, that she begins to remember the real reason she is Pretty: to see if the cure will work. Tally and her new boyfriend, Zane, each take one of the pills and both begin to stay focused for longer periods of time. Then he has a bad reaction to the pill, and Tally has to make a desperate attempt to get him to the only doctors who can help him–the ones outside the city. Westerfeld has built a masterfully complex and vivid civilization. His characters are multidimensional, especially Tally, who wrestles with what she has done in the past and what she will be forced to do in the future. Uglies and Pretties are both nearly impossible to put down. If you don't have the first one, make sure to purchase them both."–Tasha Saecker, School Library Journal


"In this highly anticipated sequel to the hit Uglies 2005), Tally Youngblood struggles to retain her mental acuity after undergoing the operation that transformed her into a Pretty. While in the renegade Ugly community, Tally learned that along with cosmetic enhancements, new Pretties are given brain lesions that leave them in a perpetual state of lazy vanity. Tally volunteered to take a drug developed to cure the lesions, but now that she is a Pretty, she has forgotten her promise. A coded message leads her to some pills and a letter that she wrote to herself before her transformation, and after swallowing the cure, she is catapulted into a dangerous new adventure, in which she discovers that the peace and happiness of Pretty society come with a terrible price. Riveting and compulsively readable, this action-packed sequel does not disappoint. Just as good as its predecessor, it will leave fans breathlessly waiting for the trilogy's final volume."- Jennifer Hubert, Booklist

Uglies

Bibliography

Westerfeld, Scott. Uglies. 2005. New York, NY: Simon Pulse ISBN 978-0-689-86538-1

Critical Analysis

Tally Youngblood is fifteen and ugly. As is every other fifteen year old in the city Tally lives in. It's not until you turn sixteen and undergo a serious, life-altering operation that you morph from being an "Ugly" to a "Pretty." Scott Westerfeld's novel Uglies manages to make an allegorical social commentary on the importance society places on beauty while telling an action-packed, futuristic story of friendship and betrayal. 

The Uglies are kept separated from the Pretties until they turn pretty themselves and get to move into New Pretty Town. All the new pretties spend their time dressed in high fashions drinking at parties or in one of the multiple "pleasure gardens" with a fellow new pretty. The behaviors of the new pretties give a not so subtle nod to the ever popularized young celebrity lifestyle. The new pretties are flippant, self-absorbed and glamorized and every Ugly anxiously awaits the day when they get to join their ranks.

Despite the futuristic, dystopian setting, Uglies provides several interesting challenges for main character Tally that teens today can relate to. Before Tally's new best friend Shay chooses to runaway to the Smokes instead of going under for the mandated pretty operation she gives Tally directions on how to find the Smokes if she wants to stay "normal" too. When the secretive Special Circumstances pretties catch wind that Shay has runaway and that Tally may know how to find her, and the band of others who did not turn pretty, she puts Tally in a challenging position- if she does not help them find the Smokes Tally will stay ugly forever. Tally is forced into some difficult positions with this ultimatum and she is not always the hero the reader wants her to be, but the journey is interesting nonetheless. 

Book Discussion Questions

1. How did society get to where it is in the novel from today?
2. Which life would you prefer and why- the life of the Pretties, Uglies or the Smokies?
3. What would you have done in Tally's shoes if you had to betray a friend or miss out on what you have looked forward to your entire life?
4. Is Peris still Tally's friend? Why or why not?
5. Will Shay be able to trust Tally again?

External Assessments

"Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots–or remain forever "ugly." Tally's adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels' cover. Ethical concerns will provide a good source of discussion as honesty, justice, and free will are all oppressed in this well-conceived dystopia. Characterization, which flirts so openly with the importance of teen self-concept, is strong, and although lengthy, the novel is highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic technologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies. Fortunately, the cliff-hanger ending promises a sequel." –Susan W. Hunter, School Library Journal


"With a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction to a dystopic future promises an exciting series. Tally is almost 16 and breathlessly eager: On her birthday, like everyone else, she'll undergo extensive surgery to become a Pretty. She's only known life as an Ugly (everyone's considered hideous before surgery), whereas after she "turns," she'll have the huge eyes, perfect skin, and new bone structure that biology and evolution have determined to be objectively beautiful. New Pretties party all day long. But when friend Shay escapes to join a possibly mythical band of outsiders avoiding surgery, Tally follows-not from choice but because the secret police force her. Tally inflicts betrayal after betrayal, which dominates the theme for the midsection; by the end, the nature of this dystopia is front and center and Tally-trying to set things right-takes a stunning leap of faith. Some heavy-handedness, but the awesome ending thrills with potential." -Kirkus Reviews