Module 5: Goin' Someplace Special and Going Bovine

Citation

McKissack, Pat, and Jerry Pinkney. Goin' someplace special. AtheneumAnne Schwartz Books, 2001. Print.

Summary


Tricia Ann is heading to a magical, special place by herself for the first time.  Along the way, she meets with prejudice, frustration and despair.  She runs across a lonely woman whose wisdom renews her positive attitude so that she can ultimately reach her special place.


Personal Impression


This book literally brought tears to my eyes which is amazing considering it's target age group and my advanced years.  It faithfully reproduces an adolescent's mixed emotions and the charged atmosphere of the time period.


Review

"Tricia Ann excitedly gets her grandmother’s permission to go out by herself to “Someplace Special” --a place far enough away to take the bus and to have to walk a bit. But this isn’t just any trip. Tricia’s trip takes place in the segregated South of the 1950s. That means Tricia faces sitting at the back of the bus, not being allowed to sit on a whites-only park bench, and being escorted out of a hotel lobby. She almost gives up, but a local woman who some say is “addled,” but whom Tricia Ann knows to be gentle and wise, shows her how to listen to the voice inside herself that allows her to go on. She arrives at her special destination--the public library, whose sign reads “All Are Welcome.” Pinkney’s watercolor paintings are lush and sprawling as they evoke southern city streets and sidewalks as well as Tricia Ann’s inner glow. In an author’s note, McKissack lays out the autobiographical roots of the story and what she faced as a child growing up in Nashville. This book carries a strong message of pride and self-confidence as well as a pointed history lesson. It is also a beautiful tribute to the libraries that were ahead of their time.— Denise Wilms"

Retrieved from Booklist


Suggestions in a Library Setting


This is a good book to display during Black History Month as well as a demonstration of life during the "free but not really" era of American history.  It is a wonderful example of life before integration and as such could be used in a school library as suggested reading in conjunction with the applicable social studies or history unit.

Citation

Bray, Libba. Going Bovine. Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2009. Print.

Summary

Cameron is a 16 year old outcast who is diagnosed with a terminal disease. He is given a chance to do something "important" with the result being that just maybe he can be cured. Cameron is on a mission to save the world accompanied by a punk angel, a gnome, and a dwarf.

Personal Impression

So far this has been one of my favorite books of the semester.  Cameron is easy to identify with and his battle for survival is heart-wrenching.  This book looks at death from a unique perspective and with humor.  

Review

In a giant departure from her Gemma Doyle historical fiction trilogy, Bray’s latest offering is an unforgettable, nearly indefinable fantasy adventure, as immense and sprawling as Cervantes’ Don Quixote, on which it’s based. Here the hero is Cameron, a 16-year-old C-plus-average slacker who likens himself to “driftwood,” but he suddenly becomes the center of attention after he is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human variant of mad cow disease. In the hospital, he meets Dulcie, an alluring angel clad in fishnet stockings and combat boots, who presents him with a heroic quest to rescue the planet from an otherworldly, evil force. Guided by random signs and accompanied by a teen dwarf named Gonzo, Cameron sets off on a wild road trip across the U.S. to save the world, and perhaps his own life. Talking yard gnomes, quantum physics, cults of happiness, mythology, religion, time travel, the blues, Disney World, the vacuous machine behind reality TV shows, and spring break’s beer-and-bikini culture all figure prominently in the plot, and readers may not feel equally engaged in each of the novel’s lengthy episodes. But Bray’s wildly imagined novel, narrated in Cameron’s sardonic, believable voice, is wholly unique, ambitious, tender, thought-provoking, and often fall-off-the-chair funny, even as she writes with powerful lyricism about the nature of existence, love, and death. Familiarity with Don Quixote certainly isn’t necessary, but those who know the basic plot will want to start over from the beginning and pick up on each sly allusion to the classic story.

— Gillian Engberg

  
Retrieved from Booklist


Suggestions in a Library Setting


This would be a good book to recommend to a young person dealing with terminal illness (in a reader's advisory fashion).  I would also recommend it as a book club selection for young adults.