All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

I love when I finish a book and am filled with such complicated emotions.  I know then that the book will be in my heart and mind for a very long time, if not forever.  When I finished reading All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, I was overcome with emotion.  I felt the heaviness of a pain planted somewhere deep inside of me as I contemplated all that had happened to the main characters.  I felt a weightlessness of hope when I thought about how I had found peace after such a turbulent storm, and I imagined this for Violet, Bren, and Charlie.  I felt a reminiscent happiness as I reflected upon the humor, the passion, and the love that the characters experienced together.  All the Bright Places is powerful!

The book begins cleverly.  Niven had to know that her readers would not be able to put the book down after they meet high school seniors Finch and Violet who are at the top of their school’s bell tower, out on the ledge, and both contemplating what it would be like to end their lives.  They are not there together.  They are simply two souls who are in a great deal of pain, imagining death at the same time.  Finch talks Violet off of the ledge, yet high school gossip retells the story as Violet, the popular cheerleader with the all-star boyfriend, saves suicidal Finch, the loser freak who is always doing something stupid.  

From that moment forward, readers fall in love with Finch’s unconventional methods as he tries to save Violet from her own pain.  They become friends and more and journey together around Indiana discovering ordinary landmarks that lead to not so ordinary revelations about life.  As Violet begins to grapple with her loss, Finch reveals the source of his pain.  The journey is tough for the characters and hard on the reader, but the beauty of what they find cannot be understated.   “I love: the way her eyes spark when we’re talking or when she’s telling me something she wants me to know, the way she mouths the words to herself when she’s reading and concentrating, the way she looks at me as if there’s only me, as if she can see past the flesh and bone and the bullshit right into the me that’s there, the one I don’t even see myself” (p. 265).  But, it is what they leave behind that is even more powerful for both the characters and reader.

All the Bright Places is wrought with reality.  It is a reality that many teens face.  There is joy, and there is sometimes great pain.  Sometimes teens keep the pain to themselves and suffer in silence.  Sometimes they let others in to help them.  There is humor with Finch and Violet.  There is love.  Yet, there is pain.  It may be a tough read from some, but I think it is an important one for all.  This book made me think about my own feelings after my grandfather’s suicide and living with a suicidal mother.  It made me think about the teens in our classrooms who may be like Finch.  I hate that we, as adults, do not see them like we should.  We have to be more vigilant.  We should say something.  I so appreciated the honest words of Niven in the Author’s Note at the end of the book, as she shared her own experiences as a Survivor After Suicide.  I think what she says, and the power of the story of Finch and Violet, might just help someone to unload the burden of blame or to seek help when all seems lost.   

Thanks, Jennifer Niven, for taking that first step into the world of YA lit.  You have left a powerful footprint.  “The thing I realize is that it’s not what you take, it’s what you leave” (p. 376).

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven, 388 pages from Alfred A. Knopf books (2015). ISBN # 978-0-385-75588-7

Ideal for young adult readers (and those who work with or care about young adults)

     

     

Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper

I love books by Sharon Draper.  This will be the first of several blogs about books by Sharon Draper, and I thought it would be appropriate to start with her most recent book, Stella by Starlight.  Be warned, I was moved by this book on so many levels, so this blog is long! 

Stella by Starlight begins with eleven-year-old Stella and her little brother Jojo as witnesses to a Ku Klux Klan gathering.  The burning cross sparks fear in the hearts of those living in the African American community of Bumblebee, North Carolina.  Most importantly, it brings to life a fire that fuels the courage for Stella’s father, and other men in the community, to demand more from the world in which they live.  Stella knows what it is like to go to the back door of businesses to receive service, she knows what it is like to have to avert her eyes when white people approach her, and she knows what it is like to be slapped in the face by a white man and have no recourse. 

Stella is selected to be a “standing stone” for her father as she watches him register to vote.  Stella observes her community band together after the Klan retaliates.  Stella even gets to march the streets and stand with her African American community, and others from the white community, as her father goes through the door to cast his vote.  These scenes in the book are intense.  Draper does an excellent job of taking the reader through the fear and the courage that the characters felt.  I cheered for Stella and her community, and I wanted to see justice, especially in the case of Dr. Packard.

Draper also made me love Stella’s family.  Stella is living in a time of great poverty; almost everyone in Bumblebee is poor and hungry.  I love the way the community members help each other.  Stella’s parents may not have much, but they are always ready to help others who are hungry or in need of shelter.  They also teach Stella about hard work and the value of education.  Most importantly, they love Stella, and I could feel that as a reader.  I loved the scenes with Stella’s family; those moments in the book made me feel completely warm inside.

If you only could see how many pages have been dog-eared in my book, you would know how much I loved the writing and word choice.  From the old hymns to the insightful writing that Stella innocently produces, Draper has a way with words.  In fact, I just love thinking about the idea that “dust becomes words” (p. 118). 

However, the thing that impacted me the most was what I learned through my research of the historical elements of the book.  At first, I just wanted to see Bumblebee on the map since Draper indicated its proximity to two other towns in North Carolina.  So, I started looking for it.  It was not there.  I dug a little deeper and discovered that the town is fictional.  Draper wrote Stella by Starlight after she was given a journal that belonged to her grandmother who grew up in North Carolina.  Using the stories from the journal and her own experiences visiting family in North Carolina, she created Bumblebee and Stella.

From there, I wanted to know about the Klan in North Carolina during the 1930s.  What I found was both shocking and eye opening.  A quick Google image search of KKK North Carolina 1930s showed me people in white costumes around burning crosses, some even on horses just as Stella saw.  There was even a “Welcome to Greenville” sign from the KKK and an even more disturbing image is of a child seemingly being fitted for her KKK costume (http://blog.ecu.edu/sites/cwis/files/2013/10/Klan_Welcome.jpg & http://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Screen-shot-2015-08-05-at-20.38.51.png).  I learned that the last photo was not from North Carolina but taken in my home state just a few years ago, which was even more ominous. 

A search of “All” docs on Google led me to a PBS documentary about the Klan in North Carolina (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/klansville/player/).  Maybe I am naïve, but I had no idea that North Carolina was called Klansville USA.  I had no idea that the first Klan was formed in 1865 in Tennessee and was a prank club to bully freed slaves, where members posed as confederate officers back from the dead.  I learned that the Klan died down quickly, but a movie in 1915 romanticized and justified the Klan.  This sparked a 1920s revival.  In the late 1920s, with four million Americans claiming Klan membership, the Klan was ripped apart because of power struggles.  So, during Stella’s time, it would have not been so common to see the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross.  This is why it was such a shock to her family when she told them what she had seen.  This is why the townsmen quickly gathered together to plan what to do next.  It was something that they likely had not seen for a few years. 

I then learned why North Carolina earned the name Klansville USA.  With Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movements of the 1960s, the Klan in North Carolina rose, with Grand Dragon Bob Jones leading them.  I had never watched a rally before.  I could not believe it…the fair, the church service atmosphere, the burning of the “Old Rugged Cross,” etc.  It was so scary, and I was sitting in my home as a white woman in 2016. 

I began to imagine Stella in 1960.  She would have been in her 40’s.  I know she would have been standing her ground as Jones’ group marched through African American communities in North Carolina.  I know that she would have been sitting at counters and riding in the front seats of busses.  I envisioned her locked arm in arm with protestors, as the images from that PBS video flashed in front of me. 

Not only had my research made me feel deep empathy for what African American people had to go through, but it let me see beyond the book.  It let me see Stella in 1960.  It was at this moment that I knew how important Stella’s dad would have been in her life.  His stand against the Klan and his courage that led him to register to vote in 1930 prepared Stella for what she would face in 1960.  Then, what Stella would have done in 1960 would prepare her children for the work they would continue to do in 2016.  This realization was amazing for me.  This is the magnificence of historical fiction. 

With a beautiful style of writing and an aptitude for telling stories about characters who rise above adversity, Draper’s work is captivating.  This is such an important book for tween readers and teachers of tweens.  I hope that it will be the next one on your reading list, and I hope that you find your way to eye- (and heart) opening research about Stella’s life, both then and in her future.

Stella by Starlight, 320 pages from Anthem Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster (2015); ISBN: 9781442494978

Ideal for upper elementary and early middle school (and anyone who loves history or needs to take a moment to empathize with others)