The Rules of Survival, Nancy Werlin

Title:  The Rules of Survival
Author: Nancy Werlin
Publisher: Dial
Year: 2006
Pages: 272
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Themes:  Overcoming Obstacles, Family, Child Abuse
Age Range:  7th Grade and Up

Summary:
Matt and his sisters are used to living with their physically and emotionally abusive mother.  They spend their days constantly on the alert for their mother's moods, trying to gauge how whether they are in for a peaceful or tumultuous day.  One sweltering night, after their mother has locked them in the house while she goes on a date, Matt and his middle sister sneak out to get a Popsicle.  While at the convenience store, Matt witnesses a man stand up to a father who is physically bullying his son, and he creates a fantasy where the man rescues him and his sisters from their miserable life.  Imagine Matt's surprise when the man ends up actually dating his mother.  However, when the inevitable break-up happens, Matt holds on to hope that the man, named Murdoch, will still be the hero he hopes for.  As his mother's obsessive behavior towards Murdoch escalates, will Matt be able to protect his sisters from the toxic tornado that she creates?

Review:
This book totally sucked me in!  Written as a long letter from Matt to his youngest sister, explaining things that she may have been too young to understand, the book is at times heartwrenching, heartbreaking, and heart stopping.  Matt and his sisters live in a state of constant fear, with the kind of hyper-alertness that is common among the abused, similar to what soldiers and people living in war-torn countries experience.  It is not always easy to read.  Matt's honest portrayal of the abuse that they suffer at the hands of the person who is supposed to care for them is sometimes raw, and sometimes disturbing in its dispassion.  Werlin does a great job of showing, through Matt, how noramlized the emotional and physical abuse becomes when that is all that you know.

There are lots of triggers in this book for youth who may have experienced similar experiences, but there are also many things to discuss, both in the writing style and the themes presented in the story.  I don't think that the subject matter should be avoided, but if you want to use it in a school setting it should be read with adult supervision and discussion.  If it is part of a classroom library, there may be kids who seek it out as a cathartic experience, but I'd keep an eye on who was reading it and how they respond to it.  I firmly believe that kids self-select the books that they are ready for, and put down or ignore the ones they aren't, and this novel certainly has an emotional impact that will engage readers in a very visceral way.

Teacher Resources:
Rhode Island Teen Book Awards Discussion Guide
Discussion Guide from Nancy Werlin

Okay for Now, Gary D. Schmidt

Title:  Okay for Now
Author:  Gary D. Schmidt
Publisher:  Clarion Books
Year:  2011
Pages:  360
Genre:  Realistic Fiction, Historical Fiction
Themes:  Child Abuse, the Effects of War, Dealing with Loss, Learning Disabilities
Age Range:  5th-8th Grade

Summary:  from Goodreads

Okay For Now, his latest novel, explores another seemingly improbable alliance, this one between new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

Review:
Gary Schmidt is well known for his Newbery honor books, Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boys and The Wednesday Wars.   His books explore the unlikely friendships that can develop when seemingly incompatible people find common ground.  He returns to the world of The Wednesday Wars for this novel, making bad boy Doug Swietack the focus of Okay for Now.

Things in Doug's life are pretty tough-an abusive father, a bully of a brother, and another off fighting in Viet Nam.  His one bright spot at home is his mother, who does everything she can to mitigate his father's rages, but who is just as likely to fall prey to them.  Things aren't much better at school.  He never learned to read, and his teachers decide before they even meet him that he is probably the same kind of trouble maker his older brothers were.  Things don't improve when his father loses his job and moves the family to a new town looking for work.  When stores start getting robbed, the entire town assumes it must be one of the Swietacks, and sentiment turns against them pretty quickly.

Doug is saved by a quirky cast of characters who help him discover new parts of himself.  Lil Spicer, the boss's daughter, pushes him to be a better person than his father or brothers; an elderly librarian who encourages his drawing talent, and a reclusive writer who helps him discover the power of words.  This is not always an easy story to read, because Schmidt does not shy away from describing, though not in great detail, the father's alcoholism and rough treatment of the family.  Doug doesn't always make the best choices, but he strives to be a better person throughout the book, and mostly he succeeds.  In this way I think that a lot of students, especially those who have also been misjudged or who have faced similar situations at home or school, will really be able to relate to Doug.  There is also plenty of meat here for discussion, making it good to use for guided reading or as a book club selection for upper elementary or middle school kids.

Bait, Alex Sanchez

Title:  Bait
Author:  Alex Sanchez
Publlisher:Simon and Shuster Children's Publishing
Year: 2009
Pages:  239
Genre:  Realistic Fiction
Age Level:  7th Grade and Up


Summary:
Diego MacMann is in trouble. At 16, he faces juvenile court, charged with assault. He just can't control his fists, especially when he feels that his masculinity is threatened. Anger-management classes have failed, and now this earnest young man teeters between self-loathing and defensive pride. Hope comes unexpectedly when he establishes a bond with Mr. Vidas. The probation officer asks questions that challenge Diego to examine his motivations and his emotional life. How does he feel about his absent birth father? The stepfather who committed suicide? The gay student who looked at him that way just before Diego punched him out? The third-person narrative keeps readers one step ahead of Diego as he unravels the effects of abandonment, poverty, and sexual abuse on himself and his struggling family. (from Amazon)

Review:
One of the things that I like best about Alex Sanchez as an author is that he shows such a clear sense of the issues teenagers deal with on the journey from childhood to adulthood.  As someone who works with teenagers as a youth advisor, Sanchez's characters and situations feel authentic in a way that some young adult authors can't seem to manage.  I also respect the fact that when he takes on an issue, whether it is the experiences of gay youth, or, in Bait, the devastating results of childhood sexual abuse,  he provides the reader not just with all the gory details, but with moments of transcendence and redemption that take the story from sensationalized stereotype toa deeply moving snapshot of the human experience.  Unlike many books on sexual abuse, Bait does not focus on the act of telling the truth as its culminating event, but on the difficult process of dealing with the emotions and patterns of behavior left in the wake of such violence.  There are no platitudes in this novel.  All along the way Sanchez shows how incredibly difficult the journey back to wholeness is for children who have been broken in this way.  But in Mr. Vidas, Diego's probation officer, Sanchez created the perfect model of what a supportive adult looks like.  And while most of the other adults in Diego's life let him down one way or another, you can't help but hope that all of the Diegos in the world will find their own Mr. Vidas.

Teaching Resources:
Alex Sanchez's Website 
Teenreads Author Profile 
Dunebrook Lesson Plan in Child Abuse