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Teen Scene

MAY 8, 2012
Dear Bully edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
While the destructiveness of bullying is forefront in the news these days, bullying and its causes and solutions are complex. This book, which is a compilation of essays by 70 authors for teens, doesn’t attempt to put this complicated subject into a tidy package, and I think that’s why this book works so well.  The essays cover the most blatant kind of bullying—physically and verbally abusing peers—but it also talks about shunning and isolating, spreading rumors, hazing, and mean “friends.” The essays cover not only the effects of bullying on the victim, but also on the bully, as well as the silent observers who don’t come to the victims’ defense. The honesty of these stories make this both a painful and cathartic read.  There are victims who used the bullying to become stronger, and victims who can’t escape the reverberations even as successful adults. There are bullies who still don’t understand why they did it years later, and bullies who are sadly aware of the pain they caused.  But throughout the book, there’s a strong message: it’s good to be you, no matter how different you are, and it’s good to appreciate the differences in everyone you encounter. Reading “Dear Bully” has the potential to be a life-changing journey for the reader. It will give strength and comfort to the victim, compassion to the bully, and courage to fearful bystanders to become involved. Some foul language. Grades 6 and up.

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MAY 3, 2012
Grammar Girl’s 101 Words Every High School Graduate Needs to Know by Mignon Fogarty
So, a book about words and their meanings—do you wonder why anyone would read it? There are many reasons: if you like words, or you want to be sure you’re using a word properly, or brushing up for SAT or ACT testing, or want to write better papers, or just want an amusing read. This little book covers all the bases. Fogarty, who is well-known for her Grammar Girl podcasts, has picked words that fall somewhere between ordinary and obscure, such as “sartorial” and “diatribe.” Each word gets 1-2 pages, with a definition, usually the origins of the word, spelling and definition memory tips, and then a quote.  Quotes are thought-provoking or funny and are taken from classic texts, Marge Simpson, movie dialogue, modern novels, the TV show Big Bang Theory, and Star Trek, to name a few. One of my favorites is this quote to illustrate how to use the word “hemisphere.”

Dr. Eric Foreman: He probably just moved. Nobody stays perfectly still during those things.
Dr. Gregory House: Right, he got uncomfortable and shifted one hemisphere of his brain to a more comfortable position.

This is a perfect book to pick up when you have only a minute or two to read. My only beef with this is that Fogarty didn’t include a pronunciation guide. For grades 7 and up.

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