Paulsen Tackles Cancer Thoughtfully

"And before it was all over, we saw just one more thing: a man dancing with his wife at the water's edge to music only they could hear. He put a hand where her right breast had been as he bent to kiss her. Johanna was behind us at that moment, bundled in a huge sweatshirt. She slipped behind me and Matthew, putting her arms around us and pulling us tight. "Cancer can't ever touch that."

-Notes From The Dog

Hopefully this excerpt displays the power of this novel effectively. Gary Paulsen's Notes From The Dog is a perfect example of young adult literature that is very engaging, but also covers a depressing subject (Cancer) in an extremely powerful way. The main character Finn (Huckleberry reference!) is somewhat of an outsider who is disengaged with the world. He is a reader of many books, and lives withing his own boundaries as he opens the novel with the immortal line: "Sometimes having company is not all it's cracked up to be". This type of character is very popular in these type of books, perhaps because young readers can easily relate to an individual who is somewhat guarded. For most of us, the whole high school experience involved us having to protect ourselves from the individuals around us, not because they were all bad, simply that the teenage years are the ones where we are most likely to feel vulnerable to the world and all of it's complexities.

I loved this book. The simplicity, use of emotion, strong characters, topicality, and general accessibility (a mere 129 pages) stood out above all the other books I have blogged on this month. Paulsen is something of a legend in the YAL world, and his ability to connect to younger audiences is something I greatly admired.

Johanna (Finn's neighbour, a breast cancer sufferer) fits many of the archetypal female characteristics of other YAL literature. She is sociable, active, very much a go-getter in life. But what sets her apart from other female characters in the genre is her disease. As she is a cancer breast sufferer, it is easy to sympathise with her and understand the emotional turmoil that she must be going through. Paulsen creates a character filled with optimism, and for me she was the highlight of this book. Finn himself I could definitely relate to. His introverted behaviour was easy for me to connect to, and I also loved Dylan (his dog) who was thoroughly involved in the story and helped create some of the humorous situations that occured.

I would say this novel is an essential read for future teachers, and it would also be very easy to bring into the classroom. Many kids will relate to the themes and topics here, and it deals with a very weighty subject in a very touching and engaging way.

Blogged by Stuart Millar

A complex mystery and teenage roadtrip from John Green

Radar is the last to get off the phone, and when he finally does, he says, "I'd like to make an announcement. My parents are very annoyed that I'm missing graduation. My girlfriend is also annoyed, because we were scheduled to do something very special in about eight hours. I don't want to get into details about it, but this had better be one fun road trip."
-John Green Paper Towns

And it certainly is. As I read John Green's Paper Towns I realized how thematically connected it was to his earlier novel Looking for Alaska. Both stories deal with teenage affection (and all of its complexities), both have a strong female character (in this case Margo), and both do not follow conventional paths in reaching their conclusions (this one has an elaborate clue-hunt to find Margo). While Looking for Alaska dealt with a select group of individuals, and their experiences at school, Paper Towns expands on similar levels while operating far more elaborately in terms of setting and action. We have contrasting characters, for instance: Quentin (introverted geek), Margo (ninja-clad, extroverted beauty), Radar (his dialogue with Quentin in the novel was a highlight for me) and Ben (Quentin's best friend). Like Looking for Alaska, Green gives us some of the most memorable Young Adult Literature characters yet, instilling them with humor, intellect, emotion, and vibrancy.

Green's strength is evident in his ability to communicate teenage relationships to the reader, mainly through the use of comical dialogue and well-defined characters. The basic story involves our narrator Quentin Jacobsen (a Holden Caufield type, there is even a Dr.Holden in the novel) and his adoration of his female neighbour Margo (a mysterious childhood friend). The plot follows their collaboration on a night of pranks, a backstory that involves a grim discovery from their chilhood, Margo eventually vanishing, and an extremely engrossing road trip section that is fantastically executed and by far the highlight of the novel for me.

I would highly recommend this to anyone that enjoyed Looking for Alaska and would even go as far as to say this is a superior novel in many ways. Green has matured in his writing here, and I loved how varied his style was (such as writing instant messages on the page, and the diary style of the road trip). He also shows his love of great literature by inserting references to Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Melville's Moby Dick. This is a perfect novel to teach to a teenage audience as it stays within the boundaries of decency, while also dealing with its themes in a very accessible and humorous way.



Blogged by Stuart Millar