Teachers who don't teach book club...manipulative man edition

At book club last night, we discussed the problem of perspective. While reading YAL it is often difficult to take myself out of my shoes and put myself into my future students' shoes because I'm busy being all why-doesn't-she-dump-him-he-just-told-her-to-shut-up-man-she-is-spoiled-and precocious-in-a-bad-way-and-it-must-be-nice-to-be-so-rich.

At many points during Nancy Werlin's Extraordinary I rolled my eyes and maybe also proclaimed disbelief of shenanigans. However, I realize that while I may have been almost as sassy as a teen as I am now, not everyone intrinsically realizes their own extraordinary-ness.

I say that with trepidation because this book beat the idea of ordinary vs. extraordinary over the reader's head about a gazillion times. That's a rough estimate.

Like any Lifetime movie, it obviously takes almost all of the book for us to come to the conclusion that everyone has the potential to be extraordinary.

Puke.

But I get it. I needed to hear that when I was a teen. And I did. The madre told me all the time.

But maybe not everyone has someone to tell them. And maybe if they read this book that couches real (if exaggerated) life situations in terms of faeries and metaphors then they could see their own special-ness.

And that's not a bad thing.

Favorite part of the book: Good parents. So much of literature deals with working out daddy or mommy issues. I know the madre will be relieved to hear that at least this book depicted supportive, unconditional loving, strong parental figures.

We then decided our book club is definitely skewing towards all things fantastical and perhaps our trajectory needs to be altered. One more dystopic novel and then we'll move on to nonfiction!

We are also toying with revisiting favorites from our own teen years. So reader, what did YOU read in high school that you loved?

"Nothing that happened in the past could be taken away."
Nancy Werlin

Teachers who don't teach book club...fairy tale edition

Remember the big bad wolf who bothered little red riding hood and her grandmother?

What if the big bad wolf was your dad?


And what if you lived in a dystopia where there used to be fairies who made dreams come true, but now fairies and dreams are gone?

And then what if you have to infiltrate the synthetic fairy dust drug running operation your dad was a part of Fast and Furious style to clear his name?

And what if Eden was a real place that you could see, but weren't allowed in?

And what if the good friend you made in juvie was Jack, of the beanstalk Jacks?

Not to mention a scary creature down in the depths of the city who wants to chomp you who might be a metaphor for societal ills but is also - in real life - going to chomp you.

Oh and don't forget the falling in love part. Wolf love. With a female wolf who asks you how many times she is going to have to save you.

And a feisty female detective who loves a fight.

I'd say it would all make for a rollicking ride of a book.

*My only caution is a brief 2-3 (I'm not sure as I had to cover my eyes and flip pages) TORTURE section which I couldn't handle and left me wondering: was that really necessary?

For dealing in fairy tales, the book was entirely modern and chalk full of modern societal issues like drugs and corruption. There are some problematic logistics in the book, such as: if the different species in the book are a metaphor for our society...who are the wolves? And what is that insinuating? Not to mention, if you can see Eden, but can't get to it (we imagined a floating island in the sky??), how did they pop into Eden by accident through a tunnel system when the societal ills monster was chasing them? CONFUSED.

Book club got off track after that with discussions of other books and teacher talk and CPS talk and why doesn't our waiter understand what can we split the bill means talk and then it was time for bed.

Until next time.

"Nobody knows the real story, because nobody ever heard my side of the story."
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs