Nerdy Book Club Suggestions by: The #Bowtieboys

One of the best and trickiest problems of NCTE conferences is deciding which sessions to attend.  With so many incredible speakers available in any given time slot it can become impossible to decide.  Twitter and other backchannels help us share information we are learning in the different sessions, but we wanted to provide the list of books read and reviewed by the #bowtieboys during the Nerdy Book Club roundtables with Donalyn Miller from Session C.  Each book comes with a brief summary, suggested age, and some ideas of how to use and implement.  Like Life cereal, kid tested, teacher approved!

Jason Augustowski - Losing my Cool by: Thomas Chatteron Williams
This autobiographical piece explores Thomas's upbringing and his constant struggle between sinking into a life of violence and drugs, and making his father proud through studying, bettering himself, and finding philosophical meaning to life.  The title serves as a double-entendre, referring both to his frustration with this constant internal war (bringing up the meaning of what it really means to be "black" or "a gangster" or "from the hood") AND from the moment when attending Georgetown when he realized our lives are about so much more than being perceived by our friends as "cool."  Due to the language and subject matter, I would suggest this book for high school.

Ryan Beaver - Boy Meets Boy by: David Levithan

The book is about a town where all LGBTQ is more common and accepted. This book follows Paul, the main character, throughout his high school career while also addressing the troubles of his friends.. Boy Meets Boy can be used in middle school classes due to its reading level and watered down content. It can be used to start conversations about how to make todays society more accepting of other people like the town in the book.

Aaron Eichenlaub - Empty by: K.M. Walton

This book is about a girl named Dell.  Basically everything in her life is going wrong.  Her dad divorces from her mom, she's overweight, she gets sexually assaulted by her crush, and gets "fat-shamed" every day.  Dell spirals into depression and the reader expects the book to get better for her, but it doesn't...  This book can be great for high schoolers as it teaches to watch how we talk to people because kids can be so cruel to each other.

Sam Fremin - Hope (And Other Luxuries) by: Clare Dunkle & Elena Vanishing by: Elena Dunkle

These two books follow Clare and Elena Dunkle respectively as Elena struggles with anorexia and bulimia after turning to these disorders as a coping mechanism for a sexual assault.  Elena's book circles around how she tries to hide her habits and the emotions she feels.  Clare's significantly longer piece takes on the mother's perspective to Elena's struggle but also how she copes with her own sadness regarding the situation.  She has to appear steady for her daughter despite her own world crumbling.  This story of two women fighting to regain their strength is a great way to build classroom empathy.  Its raw detail strongly illustrates the idea that we never truly know what is going on in a person's life.  It challenges readers to think about everything they say and do in an effort to remain considerate to everyone's emotions.

Connor Grady - Ordinary Grace by: William Kent Kreuger
When murder breaks out in New Bremen, Minnesota in the 1960s, tensions explode between the Native American and White populations of the town.  The main character, Frank Drum, struggles with the religious tensions that are splitting his family apart. Karl Brandt struggles to justify his homosexuality to the Brandt family, and subsequently the rest of the Methodist community.  I recommend this book for upper Middle School into High School for the mild sexual encounters. Foul language is also present throughout this novel, but it does not exceed anything too intense for mature Middle School audiences. This novel is a great gateway to opening up discussions on viewing life and certain circumstances.  Students can share the factors that alter or have previously altered their view of the world, with with the class as a whole or in small groups.

Spencer Hill - Hate List by: Jennifer Brown

The book was about the recovery of a community after a school shooting. The story is told from the perspective of the shooter's girlfriend, Valerie, and encompasses all aspects of her recovery, mental, physical, and social. The book also includes snippets of everyone's story to show the spider web of impact a traumatic event like a school shooting can have. The Hate List is written at a middle school level but has the occasional mention of drugs and sexual activity, so all in all, I'd recommend this for mature middle schoolers. Furthermore, the main messages of the book (treating everyone well, actions have unforeseen consequences, and the power of community) are fantastic messages to instill in those messages, especially at those transitional, personality-shaping years of middle school.

Nihar Kandarpa - In Darkness by: Nick Lake

This book is about a teenager named Shorty who is trapped under the debris of the Haitian earthquake.  He's reminiscing about his horrible past, because Haiti is considered one of the poorest places in the world.  As a result, gang violence is taking place.  Shorty WAS a part of this and DID kill people.  He DID sell drugs.  This book showed his way of forgiving himself and moving on with his life.  This is a great book to teach in high school, especially when teaching the theme of empathy!

Jack Michael - Freaks and Revelations by: Davida Willis Hurwin

This book chronicles the lives of two boys and how they hurtle towards each other on one fateful night. Doug a punk who falls in with the wrong group of friends who could be classified as Neo-Nazis. While on the other hand Jason is a gay African American boy who is kicked out of his house because of his sexuality. This makes him homeless on the streets of San Francisco. This book is a great way to teach acceptance, to show that we may have differences but the similarities outrank them. I would recommend this book for low high School to top level middle school just because of some language, a few sexual encounters, drug abuse and violence, but again a great way to teacher acceptance in the classroom. 

Jason Nguyen - Thicker Than Water by: Kelly Fiore

The book starts out with, Cece,our main character getting arrested by the police and her brother on the floor with a lifeless stare. We then flash back to three months prior of her brothers death. We learn about her family’s financial problems, stresses of high school, and her brother struggling with drugs. Cyrus was hurt and went to a doctor for prescription drugs. CeCe then started selling drugs for college and trying to stop her brother from doing them. This shows how many factors can affect someone. Her father refuses to see anything and this starts to break their relationship. This showed that drugs just don’t affect the person who does them but the people around them too. We then flash forward to present day to CeCe in a rehabilitation center. She feels that she doesn’t deserve anything or anyone. It took so many people to breakthrough that armor and help her give a reason to live again. This is exactly why every person needs a support group. This book is great for the right middle school class and early high school. It’s a great way to spread awareness and show kids what really happens behind the scenes.

Joseph O'Such - The Terrorist's Son by: Zak Ebrahim

This autobiographical account is a story about choice.  Zak, a typical 7 year old in Pittsburgh moves to New Jersey but unbeknownst to him, his father is plotting a murder and in 1990, the plan springs into action.  Although his father is surprisingly found "not-guilty" for the murder, he is found guilty of lesser chargers that land him in prison.  In prison, Zak's father plots the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.  Zak then proceeds through his childhood not only lacking a father-figure but also dealing with his classmates knowing his dad is a terrorist.  Despite this upbringing, Zak becomes an advocate for peace.  I would recommend this book for middle school especially when exploring nature vs nurture.

Kellen Pluntke - Long Way Down by: Jason Reynolds.

This book showcases the thoughts of a teen who grows up in an inner-city area plagued by gun violence.  Will Holman, the protagonist, learns that his brother was shot and killed.  All he has ever known is "you must get revenge."  He grabs his brother's gun from his room, gets on the elevator, to go after his brother's killer.  On each floor on the way down his tenement building he meets a ghost of a friend of his or his brother's who was killed by gun violence.  They teach him that what he is doing is continuing the loop of destruction.  I would recommend this book for juniors and seniors in high school due to the vulgarity.  It can be used to show a different and more personalized look into gun violence.

Rishi Singth - Decoded by: Jay-Z

This autobiography of the famous rapper investigates his childhood in the drug-infested Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, New York.  Chocked full of valuable life lessons (not the least of which being: only you can make the tough decisions that fill your life), this is a book high schoolers will love.  Although the content is mature, they will certainly relate to Jay-Z's message.

Christian Sporre - Ghost by: Jason Reynolds

This book is about a boy named Castle Crenshaw who lives in a rough part of town.  He has a tragic past (his father tried to shoot him and his mother - but they escaped).  However, since that moment, Castle has isolated himself from others until he joins a local track team called The Defenders.  He learns to make friends and open up about his tragic past.  This is a good book for middle or high school.  It is not a challenging read and it shows how important it is to have a support system and work through the issues in one's past.

Dawson Unger - High and Dry by: Sarah Skilton

This book is about a senior in high school who recently broke up with the love of his life.  Throughout the story, he has many problems including getting framed for a crime and overdosing on drugs.  Meanwhile he is struggling to get into college and win back the affections of his ex.  This book would most relate to high school students due to the subject matter.

TQ Williamson - Running with Scissors by: Augusten Burroughs

The book is a personal memoir of the author’s from 11 to 17 years old. The main character, Augusten, experiences a broken home with the father out of the picture and a mother with mental illness. Augusten is adopted by his mothers doctor who has a big family and a crazy house. Augusten experiences difficulties with motivation in school which causes him to not want to attend, something he ends up finding a way to do. Augusten experiences even more difficulties including the fact that he is gay, his mother continues to have breakdowns, he can not get a job, and his father still won’t take his calls. This book is a fantastic mirror book for students with difficulties similar to these outside of school. It can also serve as a window book that helps other students and teachers realize what can be going on in somebody else’s life. I suggest this book be reserved for upper level high school students such as juniors or seniors as it has some intense sexual scenes and minor drug use. Running With Scissors is a very comedic book and you will find very few moments of boredom while reading.

We hope these help you find some high interest texts for your classes!  Please feel free to comment with any specific questions.  :-)