Hitch

By Jeanette Ingold

Published by Harcourt, Inc.

Copyright © 2005

Moss Trawnley is 17 and he is doing everything he can to keep his family afloat. Considering that he is living during the tail end of the great depression and he still has his job at an airfield in Texas he feels pretty hopeful. He is able to send money home to his family in Louisiana every month, he is planning to go to radio repair school, and he has girlfriend named Beatty. However, when Moss suddenly loses his job his dreams seem to be turned on end.

After locating his father in Montana, Moss decides to sign up for a hitch with the Civilian Conservation Corps where he will get 3 squares and a cot and two-thirds of his pay will be sent home to help his family. Moss endures extreme weather and troublesome cabin mates, but he also learns what it takes to be a good man and a leader. He learns the meaning and value of hard work, helping others, and of loyalty.

The Civilian Conservation Corps was one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s initial New Deal programs designed to put the nation’s young men to work during the Great Depression. They were charged with among other things the tasks of reforestation, dam and reservoir construction, and park restoration. Ingold tells a fascinating story that shows why a young man might join the CCC and what camp life might be like. 

More than just being an overview of the CCC though, she creates a likeable protagonist for us who is coping with internal and external conflicts. And she highlights the proper way to deal with those conflicts. While reading Moss’ story you are waiting for him to lash out because it is the natural first instinct, but he learned from his experience what happens when you do that. Moss is a flawed character but he is good at heart, accepts subtle direction, and learns the best ways to lead. 

In addition to Moss she shows young men and women who have many different talents and passions. I thought it was great that there were young men who loved to read and were good in the kitchen and that there were young ladies who were pilots and were interested in the family farm. It is a reminder that it is our abilities and interests that should guide our work and passions, not our sex.

While the characters in this story tend to be 17 and older, I feel that youths 12 and up would enjoy this story. This book would also be well used in middle/high school language arts classes to make a cross curriculum connection with U.S. History in particular the Great Depression and the New Deal era.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

By Chris Crutcher

Published by Harper Tempest

Copyright © 1993

Is the world good or is the world bad? I guess it depends on who you ask and how far they look. For people like Sara Byrnes and Eric Calhoun it’s not always such a great place. Eric and Sarah Byrnes have been social misfits since they were young children; him fat and her terribly scarred. 

For Eric being on the high school swim team has helped him lose weight and become more accepted, but there is nothing Sarah can do about her scarred face and arms. Sarah Byrnes is still Eric’s best friend though, and now she is in the psychiatric ward of the hospital in what seems to be a catatonic state. The real puzzle is why she is there, and finding out can be the difference between life and death. Sarah Byrnes current emotional state and inability to trust anyone, even her best friend, makes it really hard to help her before time runs out.

While Eric is struggling to reach and help Sarah Byrnes, competition for supremacy of body and mind is heating up on the swim team and in his Contemporary American Thought class with Mark a fellow swimmer and student who is not quite stable.

The Author does a wonderful job of getting us into the minds of our main character, and through him helping us to understand the supporting characters and their backgrounds. He also tackles some hard subjects like religion, abortion, and suicide. A young adult novel obviously is not going to answer or solve these problems but it will cause adolescents to think critically about these issues. The mystery remains though, what happened to Sarah Byrnes and what is going to happen to her. It is definitely worth the read to find out.

You Killed Wesley Payne

By Sean Beaudoin
Published by Little Brown
Copyright 2011

Pulp Fiction P.I.'s meet high school in this mysterious and funny novel. You'll never look at high school cliques the same again.

Dalton Rev is a teenage private detective with a serious case to crack. Macy Payne has hired Dalton to find out who killed her brother and upon being intercepted by the principal (Principal Inference) he has also found a second case – tracking down $100,000 in stolen racket money.

Wesley Payne was found dead, wrapped in duct taped and hanging from a goal post at the Salt River High School football field. It becomes apparent to Dalton very soon that Wesley’s death is not the suicide it was cracked up to be. Salt River High is out of control with two raging cliques that want to rule the school, the Balls and the Pinker Caskets, and the various fringe and hangers-on cliques. The Fack Cult T is more than willing to look the other way as long as their price is met. The only thing that keeps the school from full scale violence is the looming threat of the Lee Harvies, who thwart violence with the threat of violence. This is going to be a tough case for Rev to crack by himself.

Sean Beaudoin has written your classic pulp-fiction novel that is updated with a seriously modern and off the wall cast of jocks, geeks, nerds, preps, goths, psychopaths, and depressed loners. And don’t forget those tough as nails police detectives that inevitably have to be circumnavigated. “You Killed Wesley Payne” is prison rules high school with high fashion, tough mystery, snarky Ironic humor, and witty banter.

This is an awesome book for high level teens (grades 9-12). While some content in this book is a little edgy, I applaud him for accomplishing this without the excessive use of foul language which tends to find its way into high level YA Literature. I love Beaudoin for bringing back the hard-boiled mystery/crime genre. This book is going to resonate with teens of every ilk because of Dalton’s anti-superhero, how many times can I be beat unconscious, everyman persona, as well as for the plethora of cliques that will enable most teens to find someone they relate to.

A Distant Enemy

By Deb Vanasse
Published by Lodestar Books
Copyright © 1997

“A Distant Enemy” is the story of Joseph, a 14 year old Yup’ik Eskimo from Southwestern Alaska. When we first meet Joseph he is fishing with his grandfather even though Alaska fish and game has closed down the Salmon season early to preserve the stock. Joseph is very angry, because for longer than he has been alive the Yup’ik way of life has been encroached upon by the kass’aq, white people, and now they are putting a limit on how long his people can fish for salmon from the river. To Joseph the kass’aq is the enemy.

Joseph is so angry that when the fish & game officers come to their village he slashes the tires of their airplane. Joseph believes that no one has seen him, but he has been seen by the new kass’aq school teacher. This new teacher does not turn Joseph in and tries to help him. While Joseph has no choice but to accept the teachers offer for help he is still ungrateful; he views it as more kass’aq meddling.

Much of Joseph’s anger stems from the fact that he is half white, and his white father abandoned his family. Joseph’s uncontrolled anger continues to get the best of him and he ends up hurting and disappointing those who care for him. In the end his anger hurts him the most as it nearly costs him his own life.

Deb Vanasse has created for us very real character that likely embodies the feelings and struggles of many native peoples of Alaska and other parts of this country. Thankfully however, this book is not about injustice of the white man. It is instead about being non-judgmental and about how anger can eat you up inside until you ruin yourself (among other things). Though I was left with a few questions at the end, finding these lessons in such an entertaining story set in such a rich cultural and geographic backdrop was a pleasure.