So there's still a while to go in class, but this is the last annotation. To review, we've gone on a Heist,traveled to the past and met The Woman in Black, traveled to the future for The Selection, and had fun with Brooklyn Girls ( plus some fun involving bookstores, trains, dancers, and dogs.) For this last annotation, it's Young Adult (YA), which is a coming-of-age story featuring a teen.
About the Owl and Young Adult-
When I was a teen, I did read YA ( like Judy Blume, Lurlene McDaniels, Norma Fox Mazer.) But after awhile, I found it a bit predictable and cheesy, and jumped in the adult thrillers of John Grishman and Michael Crichton. Then toward the end of high school, Harry Potter came out and since then, have jumped back into the stories involving the ups and downs of adolescence. I really love chick lit ( and the girly the better),but also supernatural/paranormal ( like Twilight), historical, and sci-fi dystopia. ( I also love visiting the somewhat cheesy teen paperbacks of my youth.) In fact, I almost considered revisiting the past ( or a sport-oriented read like Mike Lupica), but one of the prompt inspired me to choose....
Title:First Love
Author: James Patterson and Emily Raymond
Genre: YA, Realistic Fiction, Romance
Publication Date: January 13, 2014
Number of Pages: 288
Geographical Setting: Portland, Oregon, various states during the road trip ( California, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina)
Time Setting: 21st Century, during the summer
Topics: First Love,Runaways, Road Trips, Cancer
Characteristics of a Young Adult Novel(as Featured in this Book)
- The main characters are teens: good girl Alexandra "Axi" Moore( and told from her point of view) and rugged charmer Oscar Robinson ( who goes by " Robinson" in the book and being a high school dropout/musician/car enthusiast , is the "bad boy" in YA terms.) Adults and other teens are minor characters of wisdom and support.
- Hoping to shake her "GG" nickname ( and escape the problem of her alcoholic dad and absentee mom), Axi decides she and Robinson need to take an spur-of-the moment road trip to find themselves (and to tell him she loves him).
- It reads fast but can be enjoyed at a leisurely pace ( actually recommending to read it slowly due to the social issue and emotional tone that follows).
- Youthful,carefree voice till the social issue, then emotional and poignant.
- Storyline revolves around a social issue (cancer),
- As mentioned, Axi is the typical good girl who studies hard, has no criminal record. Robinson is charming, bit mysterious (and a bit of a bad boy.)
- Emotional, moving language, makes the ordinary seem magical ( such as playing in the desert as if it is snow or spending a quiet night watching fireflies.)
- Social issue (cancer) actually does affect the youthful, carefree tone of the story (and the road trip) making it more moving and poignant until the highly emotional ending. Also explains the common bond the teens share and makes them wise beyond their years.
- Although a romance blossoms during the course of storyline(and they do have sex toward the end), there isn't a happy ending because.... one of the teens dies. Surviving teen learns to live life to the fullest, to look at the good and bad side of life.
My take- I've read Patterson's romantic but weepy novels( which are good, really different from his gritty crime mysteries), so I knew right away what to expect ( plus Patterson mentions in the dedication at the start of the book that this is inspired by a past love who died too young.) I grew to like Patterson's and Raymond's reckless but emotional road trip of GG (Good Girl) and her scalawag, even when the cancer subplot was revealed ( both teens were being treated for cancer, but one is terminal, sniffles) and that it actually made the story more poignant up to the emotional ending ( and I so wept. Seriously, there should have been a pocket of Kleenex in the book.)
Obviously, this would be more for teen girls who favor emotional reads similar to Lurlene McDaniels (or women who favor Nicholas Sparks or Richard Paul Evans. Not really a guy read, especially with dialogue like "“I watched the way our fingers intertwined, and I thought, What are hands made for but this? For holding. For holding on."). Overall, a good read I would check out again and again (with lots and lots of tissues.)
Read-a-Likes ( From Novelist)
- What My Girfriend Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones- Sequel to What My Mother Doesn't Know, it's a novel in verse story about how a reputation of an unpopular teen rises while dating a beautiful, popular girl ( like First Love, it's a fast-paced read and features the subjects " First Loves" and "Teenage boy/girl relations")
- Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli- Popular student Leo Borlock falls for an eccentric girl named Stargirl. ( Like First Love, it' has a "Moving" tone and features the subjects " First Loves" and "Teenage boy/girl relations")
- Nothing to Lose by Alex Flinn- After traveling with a circus for a year, a teen runaway returns home after learning is mother is being accused of murdering his stepfather. ( Like First Love, it's a fast-paced read and features the subject " Runaways.")
Thus concludes the annotations, hope you enjoyed them and will check the books out. I'll post my prompt later tonight or Thursday.
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