Teen Summer Reading @ BDL

It's Summer!! Time to read and relax with a cool lemonade. Be sure to check out the Teen Summer Reading Program at Brighton District Library. If you read even for a little while each day, you'll be entitled to register to win some very nice prizes. Prizes include Target gift cards, Flip cameras, audio books, and more. There will be a party at the end of the reading program and activities to join in throughout the summer. Crafts, gaming, martial arts, Zumba - you name it. There's something for everyone this summer at BDL. Catch all the details at their website: Teen Summer Reading Program. Let's keep reading!

Review by Mrs. Boehm

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and my Journey from Homeless to Harvard by Liz Murray

You know from the title that Liz Murray went from homeless to Harvard. As you read her memoir, Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and my Journey from Homeless to Harvard, you can't help but wonder how she managed to accomplish that. Her parents were mainline cocaine users, unemployed and spending their government issued checks within days they were cashed. This story is not nice.

Liz's descriptions are graphic and smelly. She watched them as a toddler shooting up cocaine in their kitchen. As a preschooler, she kept watch through the night for her dad to return home with his $5.00 bag of drugs. She and her older sister went hungry often and Liz stopped attending school because of the humiliation she endured from other students, after all, she did not bath, sleep, eat, have clean clothes, or any idea about what was a 'normal' life.

She left her mother's home at the age of 15 when her mother was diagnosed with AIDS. She was homeless at that very young age. She shoplifted food, slept hidden in friend's closets, and managed to elude the truant officers and child protective service social workers seeking to place her in an institutional home. At the age of 17 she realized that it was up to her to take charge of her life - no one was going to pay her rent but her. She found an alternative high school with teachers who lovingly supported her efforts without knowing her homeless state. She completed 4 years of high school in 2 years. Yes, she did enter Harvard, earning the prestigious New York Times scholarship, and graduated in 2009.

In January, 2011 it was announced that Ms. Murray's memoir won the YALSA Alex Award given to 10 books each year that were written for adults but with a strong appeal to young adults. You can read more about Liz Murray at Manifest Living - her program aimed at helping adults transform their lives.

My favorite quote from Liz Murray: "No one truly knows what is possible until they go and do it."

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The NewSouth Edition

You may be aware that there is much brouhaha about a recently published edition of Huck Finn in which "nigger" and "injun" are replaced as well as other editorial changes. I was curious to get the publisher and editor's perspectives on this and thought you may like to know as well.

This article, Auburn-Montgomery Professor Alan Gribben Not Shocked His Editing or Twain Classics Drawing Fire, gives that perspective. It also links you to an excerpt from the introduction in this new edition which is most informative.

The new edition is worthy of discussion but the brouhaha may be unfounded when you're informed by the editor and publisher of their reasoning for presenting this new edition of Huck Finn. The editor, Gribben, is a Twain scholar and certainly there are rewrites all the time on the classics - condensed, children's versions, graphic novels, etc.

Watch for a copy of this New South edition in the BHS Media Center.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Paper Towns by John Green

This should be read by all - all of us, all of YOU! There are so many facets that John Green has put into his award-winning novel, Paper Towns, that it goes well beyond a mystery - its identified genre.

First and foremost, this book is about friendship. Not just the "hi, how are ya" friends that you pass in the hall. True friends that never give up on each other. Friends that will go to the ends of the earth with/for you. Reading Paper Towns draws the reader into the mundane, the exciting, and the scary of that kind of friendship.

Quentin and Margo are neighbors, have been since they were toddlers. Their childhood friendship drifts apart as they've grown up until one night, just before their high school graduation, Margo enlists Q's help to pull some midnight pranks. The next day - she's disappeared! Not the first time she's run away, but now she is 18 so no longer the minor that her parents can compel home. Even the police take a hands-off approach to looking for her. Not Q! He finds clues among her belongings and most importantly within the notes she's made in her copy of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

It's a mystery because Q and friends now must try to find Margo. It's also a love story between friends and between Q and Margo. As you read you'll want Q to find her but you may or may not want Margo to love Q. That's the final question - Will they ever be able to resume their childhood friendship that was lost so many years ago as they grew up? How have they changed? Why did Margo leave town just before graduation? Do they really know each other at all? When you finish reading Paper Towns, go ahead - try to find Agloe, NY on Google maps. :-) That's what I did too!

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson

This is a true story. This is the story of a very young man. This is a war time story and it is happening now. Ryan Smithson, in Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI, tells us of his daily life becoming a GI and defending our freedom in Iraq. He was right out of high school. Yes, your age. Think forward to June when many of you will graduate. Some will begin planning for college days, others will find work for the summer, others will find their life's career. Ryan chose to join the Army Reserve.

His story is simple. His story is gritty. His story is one many of us will never know if not for books like Ryan's. He was just sixteen the day our country was attacked by terrorists flying jets into NYC's Twin Towers. You will read how that impacted his decision to defend his country. You will read about the day-by-day routines of the military life - the exciting and the mundane. You will read of his life after he returned home from Iraq and how that experience impacted his life's work.

If you are contemplating a military commitment, this book is a must read. Ryan's story may very well be yours.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me by Condoleezza Rice

I'll never forget the first time I saw and heard Condoleezza Rice. She was at the Republican National Convention in August 2000. George W. Bush had just received the nomination to run on the Republication ticket for president of the United States. Her speech that night spoke of her support for George W. Bush and it gave us glimpses into her family's story. Her father is a Republican because at that time in Alabama the Republicans allowed him, an African American, to register to vote whereas the Democrats did not. I listened as she told us of her grandfather working hard to attend college because he knew with education he could succeed. Mind you, at that time few people had the funds to attend college and even fewer African Americans. Condoleezza Rice's grandfather began a tradition that kept her family college-educated ever since. I listened intently as this young woman spoke with such eloquence and sincerity I thought, she could be our next president!

In her autobiography, Condoleezza Rice: A Memoir of My Extraordinary, Ordinary Family and Me, you'll be impressed by Ms. Rice's story. She is a very accomplished woman and I attribute that to her parents and grandparents' commitment to education. Her interests are varied including being a concert pianist and longing to be the Major League Baseball commissioner! She has served President George W. Bush in several capacities and as the first African American woman Secretary of State.

If you long to learn about strong women, you must read this book. You will be inspired.

Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm

Have You Looked at Blogger Lately?

Blogger is about to have some major upgrades! This blog that you are reading, BHS Reads, is written on the Blogger web-based platform. Stay tuned for design changes, just as soon as they are available and I explore them. Watch this cute video, Have You Looked at Blogger Lately?, for some amazing stats on blogging and bloggers. We're WRITING!



Reviewed by Mrs. Boehm