Inexcusable, By Chris Lynch

Title: Inexcusable
Author: Chris Lynch
Publish Date: May 8, 2007
Publisher: Atheneum
Pages: 176
ISBN: 1416939725

Price: Paperback $7.99
Classification: Fiction
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Age Range: Young Adult
Price: $7.99
Annotation: Everybody loves Keir. Or so he thinks. He is the typical "good guy." But when his girlfriend accuses him of rape he uses his good guy status as an excuse for the accusation's impossibility.

Summary: High school senior Keir thinks of himself a charming and lovable rascal. So does everyone around him, including his widowed dad. He likes being popular. Keir would never do anything to hurt anyone on purpose-just a little silliness while drinking or experimenting with drugs–and that doesn't even count. But, when he tackles a little too hard, or or vandalizes a town statues as a prank, he writes it off as normal, mischievous or sporty behavior. But, he cant write off date rape, no matter how hard he tries...

Evaluation: Many rape stories such as Laurie Halse Anderson's famous novel Speak, are from the perspective of the victim. This book explores the psychological minefield of the rapist. This book is exceptional for this first person narrative along with the fact that it is an National Award Finalist and a page turner!

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Date Rape, Facing Your Mistakes, Denial, Perpetrator's Perspective, Danger's of Drinking and Drug Use

Reason this Book was Chosen: For the unique perspective.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Title:Speak
Author:Laurie Halse Anderson
Publish Date:March 19, 2009
Publisher:Speak; 10 Anv edition
Pages:240 pages
ISBN:0142414735
Classification:
Genre:
Age Range:Young Adult
Price: $8.63

Annotation:

Summary: After being date-raped a party, Melinda Sordino suffers intensely through her first year at Merryweather High

in utter silence, that is, she has a secret and that secret is why everybody hates her. During the Summer Melinda is Date-raped, calls the police, and the party is broken up. Because nobody knows why she called the police they brand her. Melinda begins to get worse and worse as she folds within herself and becomes mute while loses enthusiasm for everything that should have been an amazing first year of high school. Abandoned by her friends, she wishes she could confide.

Evaluation: I loved the interactions between the teacher and the Melinda and the use of art as a catalyst for expression. It is stylishly written and it's tone with memorable. I love Melinda and feel deeply for her. Much of her school brings up memories of more then one of my teachers and experiences. Spot on amazing! There is a reason why Anderson is so beloved, in my opinion.

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Expressing trauma, Art therapy, friendship, trust, depression, Communicating with your Parents

Reason this book was chosen: The use of art as therapy instead of the obvious choices like dealing with being raped and bullied.

Another Amazing Author Website: http://www.writerlady.com/

Go Ask Alice, by Anonymous

Title:Go Ask Alice
Author:Anonymous
Publish Date:December 27, 2005 (1st 1971)
Publisher:Simon Pulse
Pages:224 pages
ISBN:1416914633
Classification:
Genre:
Age Range:Young Adult
Price:$9.99

Annotation: After being unknowingly turned on to LSD, the anonymous main character falls into a hole of destruction via drugs.

Summary: Written by an Anonymous author in diary form, this tale follows an innocent girls descent into a world of the hippie revolution and ultimately utter despair. It is generally questioned whether the book is a "true" account of a drug addict like it touts itself, or just a scare tactic created for the sole purpose of enlightening young readers to the horrors and ultimate death from a drug overdose in the late 1960s.

Evaluation: To me it is questionable how a teen will take this. It's intended to be a scare tactic or warning I think, but also reads as a vicarious and/or manual for partying with drugs and doing whatever the hell you want. Sounds like every teens dream. Furthermore it lacks the sophistication of a real teen "voice" and mirrors more of a interpretation of what adults think teens are. At any rate, it is entertaining and a classic controversial title. Ultimately if you take it with a grain of salt, it's quite a good read and has potential in actual worth or being able to have some bibliotherapeutic usefulness.

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Romanticizing Drugs and the consequences

Reason this book was chosen: Widely controversial for everything from sex to drugs during the hippie days, Go Ask Alice, is a reference to the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit". Grace Slick made the song on what she (and many others) thought were drug references in the classic book Alice In Wonderland.

Best Part of the Book? Getting this stuck in your head:

Living Dead Girl, by Elizabeth Scott

Author: Elizabeth Scott

Publish Date: September 2008

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Pages: 176pp

ISBN: 1416960597

Classification: Fiction

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Age Range: 14 and up

Price: $8.99

Annotation: Alice was kidnapped and abused and now she is waiting to die. She thought she knew how it would all turn out, but she was mistaken.

Summary: Five years ago, Alice was taken by a man in an aquarium pretending to be helping her. Alice isn't even actually Alice. All of Ray's girls are renames Alice. And the last Alice was killed when she no longer had her childlike body. She was 15. This Alice is aware that this will be her fate soon and she almost welcomes it as freedom from the sexual abuse horror that has become common place in her life. Her duty is to find a replacement for Ray. And how it all turns out is not how she envisions at all.

Evaluation: A lot of books are hard to read because the thought is horrific but this is up there on the top ten list. Intense, straightforward, and sexual, listening to her story was like being a prisoner myself. The writing is simple and short of choppy, not in a bad way, but in a way that keeps you feeling short of uncomfortable. It's an interesting use of style with this subject matter. I actually had to stop reading it for a month. I had to. Then I finished it. It was difficult to be in this headspace, but it is clearly a story that needs to be told.

Bibliotherapeutic Usefulness: Getting Used to Being Abused, Sexual Abuse, Abduction, Healing, Surviving Abuse, Escape

Reason this book was chosen: I couldn't help but be curious how this book would take shape. After reading it, it was so stunning I had to bring light to it's importance. I know it's one of those books that parents or educators want to shield their children from (the horrors of life-like these) but it's reality and it may make children or teens aware and safer because of it. A must read.

Website: http://www.elizabethwrites.com/livingdeadgirl.php