Ruined by Lynn Nottage

War rages in the rainforests of the Congo. Government soldiers torment the miners and farmers who get in their way. Village women are raped, abducted, and killed.

In Lynn Nottage’s play “Ruined” several young Congolese women find refuge in Mama Nadi’s brothel and bar, where their work as singers and prostitutes is a relief compared to the horrors they have already suffered.

The print version of the play was published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc. in 2009 and contains photographs by Tony Gerber of the real African women who became the inspiration for the characters Sophie, Josephine, and Salima.

Appropriate for young adult readers age sixteen and up, this play demonstrates the tightrope these women walk daily as they balance their attentions between government soldiers at night and rebels during the day. Their lives are full of varying degrees of pain, and their fight is only to survive and avoid the worst of it, which is certainly inevitable.

The following video from Voice of America explains how the play demonstrates the atrocities of the ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKdkitqxPUc

See a review of the performed play here:

http://feministspectator.blogspot.com/2009/03/ruined-by-lynn-nottage.html

Specials by Scott Westerfeld

In Scott Westerfeld’s young adult sci-fi trilogy, Uglies, Pretties, and Specials, Tally Youngblood starts out as a rebel against the institution.

In Tally’s world, all teens have a special operation when they turn sixteen. They are made into Pretties with supermodel-gorgeous faces and bodies. Tally, though, chooses to join the rebels and keep the way she looks. This means, she is an Ugly.

By the third book of the trilogy, Specials, published by Simon Pulse in 2006, Tally ends up being turned into a Special – a fighting machine, “dangerously strong, breathtakingly fast” (Westerfeld). She is programmed to complete missions successfully, without question. But Tally still hears a small voice in her head and a small ache in her heart. Somehow, she hasn’t been completely transformed. Her struggle is to decide whether she will listen to that voice and begin to think for herself again, or whether she will fulfill her destiny as a Special.


Scott Westerfeld has two amazing websites that give information about the author and all of his books:

http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

http://www.scottwesterfeld.com/books/uglies.htm

Can't Get There from Here by Todd Strasser

Homeless teens on the street: stealing, begging, cutting... starving, freezing... crying... dying.

When you’re an angry kid, the streets might seem like a solution, but for Maybe and her shrinking group of so-called friends, the streets hurt. And there’s a certain amount of time to be out there, a time during which you still have the chance to go back home.

Home: a place where you have to face your fears, but a place where you can still live a life.

But after that time goes by, and you’re on the streets for too long, you never get home again.

In Todd Strasser’s novel Can’t Get There from Here, Maybe tries to help a new runaway called Tears to get back home before it’s too late.

Published by Simon Pulse in 2004, this book tells the gritty story, appropriate for readers 13 and up, of kids who struggle to survive in New York City, who are beaten by strangers in the street, who find their friends’ bodies dead and frozen to the concrete ground in stinking alleyways, and who share brief moments of tenderness in order to make it through to the next morning.

For book information, visit the link below:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Cant-Get-There-From-Here/Todd-Strasser/e/9780689841699/

Read the following reviews, from Teenreads.com and Young Adult Book Reviews.com here:

http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/0689841698.asp

http://youngadultbookreviews.com/2008/02/14/cant-get-there-from-here-by-todd-strasser/

Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway... and More

Would you like to be a poet?

Would you like to perform on Broadway?

Have you ever seen Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam?

Did you know they won a Tony Award for their performance on Broadway?

This book, Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam on Broadway... and More, edited by Danny Simmons and published by Atria in 2003, captures the photos, the biographies, and the words of nine spoken-word poets addressing issues from poverty, weight issues, race and gender issues, prison, relationships, hope, struggle, bravado, music, junk food, drugs, patriotism, religion, loyalty, and literature.

These works contain some strong language and are for high school age readers. The group of nine performers includes Black Ice, Tamika Harper, Lemon, Staceyann Chin, and Shihan. Their work reminds us of the strength and beauty of language and of the power of the human voice. Hear them, read them, and then shape your own message.

For biographies of the nine Def Poets who performed on Broadway, visit the following site entitled Def Poetry Jam on Tour:

http://www.defpoetryjamontour.com/

For some examples of the power of spoken-word poetry, see the following videos from Russell Simmons' HBO show Def Poetry Jam:

Compare this poem, entitled "Knock, Knock" by Daniel Beaty, to Theodore Roethke’s 1948 work “My Papa’s Waltz”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nktBsI0PYPs

http://gawow.com/roethke/poems/43.html

Compare this poem, called "Hell" by Talib Kweli, to Emily Dickinson’s “Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church,” first published in 1924:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-6QJTMBzLM

http://www.bartleby.com/113/2057.html

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Imagine five beautiful sisters living in the English countryside during the early 19th century.

When two handsome bachelors move into the estate next door, flirtation and rumors of marriage abound. However, love is not the only thing lurking in the moonlight...

England has become overrun with the most dangerous of plagues: zombies!

These undead, brain-eating monsters roam the hills and estates of the town of Meryton, dining on wealthy landowners and their unassuming servants. While many local citizens arm themselves with guns and daggers in an effort to survive sudden zombie attacks, the Bennet sisters have all that and more.

Trained by their father in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, these beautiful maidens bash skulls, tear off limbs, and rip apart the rotting carcasses of the undead fiends! But can they wipe out the plague of zombies and still find true love?

The only way to find out is to read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, published by Quirk Books in 2009, written originally by Jane Austen, expanded by Seth Grahame-Smith, and gruesomely illustrated by Philip Smiley. This book is for readers age 14 and up.


To learn more, see the following trailer video by Amie Wright:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzowFJTApfY


Here is another trailer created by an anonymous editor who imagines what the movie based on this book might be like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVr_Whqd-jo&feature=related


Below is an informational website about the book and its authors (s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_and_prejudice_and_zombies

Finally, here is a link an original video made by me. It’s not great, but it could be used as an example of what students might do as an alternate book report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QTYBkH0OFc