BIBLIOGRAPHY
Medina,Meg. 2016.BURN BABY BURN. CandlewickPress. ISBN 9780763679989
2. PLOT SUMMARY
During the summer of 1977 when New York City is besieged by arson, a massive blackout, and a serial killer named Son of Sam, seventeen-year-old Nora must also face her family's financial woes, her father's absence, and her brother's growing violence.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In “Burn Baby Burn” Medina writes it so beautifully and is able to keep her readers entertained the whole way through. She expresses the family dynamics to where the reader is able to empathize with the characters and try to understand how this impacts them on top of what the historical situation is happening. We are taken back to 1977 in New York City, where there are killings happening and the heatwave that causes a blackout. While all of this is happening we are also learning about how Nora is navigating through her own self-discovery journey while with her single struggling mother and absent father and very violent brother Hector.
Overall, this story was able to have moments of drama, the suspense of not knowing what would happen next but being captivated by the storytelling and the moments of sentiment. We learn the struggles of being a woman of color during the hardships going on at the time and the choices that Nora has to make regardless of what she knows is true, but is confident in what she wants for herself. It was amazing to see how Medina is able to mix the historical fiction aspect of the story while still being able to tell a compelling and thought provoking story.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Horn Book
In this vividly evoked coming-of-age story set in 1977 NYC during the oppressive heat wave, seventeen-year-old Nora Lspez faces an insecure future after graduation. The very real fear of an at-large serial killer is magnified by violence at home, and Nora's mother barely scrapes by. Nora is an empathetic character; Medina depicts her troubled family and their diverse Queens neighborhood with realistic, everyday detail.
School Library Journal Starred Review (2/1/16)
Gr 9 Up-Nora Lopez is 17 in 1977 when New York City faced one of its most horrific summers in history. A serial killer called Son of Sam was on the loose, shooting innocent couples; the city faced a blackout complete with looting; and arson was rampant. Nora's brother Hector is illegally dealing drugs and physically abusing his mother, Mima, and Nora. Their father is practically out of the picture, unreliably sending checks and calling only on the holidays. Nora works at her neighborhood deli, helping the family to make ends meet. Just when Nora's fear and panic peaks, she meets new hire Pablo. While Nora is not ready for a relationship, one quickly forms. Ashamed and embarrassed, Nora hides secrets about her family from Pablo and from her best friend, Kathleen. Medina uses Nora's story to seamlessly connect readers to an unforgettable period in history, the setting leaving readers thirsting for more information about the summer of 1977. The character development is tight and accurately constructed. Medina holds nothing back, shedding light on the characters' flaws, which teens today will be able to relate to. Medina is on point with the teen voices, evoking their intense fear, panic, and dreams. VERDICT A devastatingly intense story, this work is a must-have for all collections, especially where Ruta Sepetys's books are popular. Erin Holt, Williamson County Public Library, Franklin, TN
Starred Review ALA Booklist (2/1/16)
*Starred Review* It's 1977 in New York, and almost-18-year-old Nora is about to graduate high school and is saving up for her own place. Of course, it's not as easy as just moving out. Her Cuban immigrant mother, who only speaks Spanish, relies on her to navigate everyday life. Meanwhile, she coddles Nora's firebug younger brother, Hector, whose short temper is getting more violent by the day. No matter what Nora tells her mother, she does nothing about Hector and faults Nora for his delinquency, and, before long, his terrifying, uncontrollable rages become too scary to handle on her own. Medina artfully links Nora's escalating domestic turmoil with the infamous summer of 1977, marked by blackouts, sweltering heat, racial tensions, arson, and the Son of Sam killings, all of which simmer menacingly in the background. Medina weaves historical context throughout Nora's first-person narrative, expertly cultivating a rich sense of atmosphere while still keeping her characters sharply in the foreground. Nora herself is wonderfully multifaceted, hardened by responsibility, delighted by disco, crazy about the handsome boy at her job, and, all the while, stalwart and determined to make her life on her own terms. Powerfully moving, this stellar piece of historical fiction emphasizes the timeless concerns of family loyalty and personal strength while highlighting important issues that still resonate today.
5. CONNECTIONS
Social Economic Status:We can see how Nora’s socioeconomic status affects the choices that she makes for herself, or rather holds herself back because of it. Why do you think that her status affected her confidence in herself? Do you think this does play a role in how you go about your life and choices you make?
Family Dynamics: Nora’s family dynamics includes her single mother who is struggling financially all while still struggling with Nora's brother Hector. How do family dynamics play a role in our life? What did you think about the characters as we learned more about them?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2. PLOT SUMMARY
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
After finding her passion for writing the city has no clue that someone like her is writing it for all of them to read. Lee is able to mix in humor, and is able to get the reader to know our main character and her struggles through her writing style. She is able to stay true to how it was back in the 1890’s in Atlanta and the hardships that the Chinese had to go through, this may even compel the reader to want to dive deeper into what was happening during this time in Atlanta. Overall the story may seem to go a bit slow for some readers but at the end can see how this builds into the bigger picture of who our main character ends up being and builds for herself.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Jo Kuan leads a double life: a public role as a quiet lady's maid and a secret one as the voice behind the hottest advice column in 1890 Atlanta.Chinese American Jo is mostly invisible except for occasional looks of disdain and derisive comments, and she doesn't mind: Her priority is making sure she and her adoptive father, Chinese immigrant Old Gin, remain safe in their abandoned abolitionists' hideaway beneath a print shop. But even if she lives on the margins, Jo has opinions of her own which she shares in her newspaper advice column under the byline "Miss Sweetie." Suddenly all of Atlanta is talking about her ideas, though they don't know that the witty advice on relationships, millinery, and horse races comes from a Chinese girl. As curiosity about Miss Sweetie mounts, Jo may not be able to stay hidden much longer. And as she learns more about the blurred lines and the hard truths about race in her city and her own past, maybe she doesn't want to. In her latest work, Lee (The Secret of a Heart Note, 2016, etc.) continues to demonstrate that Chinese people were present—and had a voice—in American history. She deftly weaves historical details with Jo's personal story of finding a voice and a place for herself in order to create a single, luminous work.An optimistic, sophisticated portrayal of one facet of Chinese American—and simply American—history. (Historical fiction. 13-18)
Starred Review ALA Booklist
*Starred Review* It's 1890 in Atlanta, and Jo Kuan has a secret: she's the anonymous author of the popular, yet polarizing, new agony aunt column "Dear Miss Sweetie." After spending her life living in a secret basement room (a relic of the Underground Railroad) beneath the press offices of The Focus, a newspaper run by the Bell family, she's picked up a masterful vocabulary to match her sharp wit, and the combination proves intoxicating to Atlanta's young ladies. But if anyone found out that a Chinese American teenager was behind the column, she'd be run out of town or worse. Lee (Outrun the Moon, 2016) has concocted another thrilling historical novel, blending stellar plotting and a dynamic cast of characters with well-researched details and sharp commentary on America's history of racism and prejudice. She pulls no punches when it comes to Jo's experiences of being Chinese in the Reconstruction South: a meeting of Atlanta's suffragettes proves unwelcoming despite their claim to want votes for all women, and though there's stirring romance between Jo and the son of the Bell family, Jo acknowledges the difficulties in that path. But best of all is Jo's first-person narrative, which crackles with as much witty wordplay and keen observations as her column. This spectacular, voice-driven novel raises powerful questions about how we understand the past, as well as the ways our current moment is still shaped by that understanding.
5. CONNECTIONS
Cultural & Historical connections: what other connections to history can we make from reading this novel?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sepetys, Ruta. 2011.BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY. Penguin. ISBN 9781101484630
2. PLOT SUMMARY
In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina and her family are sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death in a prison camp, and she vows to honor her family and others by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil.
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In “Between Shades of Gray”, I found that it was such an easy read as the reader was able to follow the story and just wait on what would happen next. When thinking of the characters, we see a lot of the children in this story and in the beginning we see how it all unraveled with their mother, and that is just the reality of this time period. Sepety character writing really makes the reader think about how war does not care about whether you are old, young, a woman, a man, anyone can go through it and their voices need to be heard. While the war is essentially going on we can see how Lina resorts to her art, and how she also is trying to remain brave for her family even through the tragedy of her father being sentenced to death.
Sepetys does an amazing job with her writing, making the author feel the real and raw emotions even in the beginning with letting us know just how in depth this family was traumatized. From us as the readers being able to feel just how frustrated and “over it” for a lack of better words Linas mom must have felt when she destroyed what she loved most and had her son watch and question why she was doing it. As the story unravels we can see a sense of hope with Lina, and just how strongly and passionately she feels about her art and how that may be the one thing that still connects her or will connect her with her father.
4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
Horn Book Guide starred (Fall 2011)
In 1941 Lithuania, the Soviet secret police show up at fifteen-year-old Lina Vilkas's home. They throw Lina, her younger brother, and their mother onto a train bound for Siberia, beginning a decade-long nightmare. Sepetys creates complicated characters in her story of deprivation and suffering. Two excellent maps and an informative author's note round out this haunting chronicle.
Kirkus Reviews starred (January 15, 2011)
This bitterly sad, fluidly written historical novel tackles a topic woefully underdiscussed in English-language children's fiction: Joseph Stalin's reign of terror. On June 14th, 1941, Soviet officers arrest 15-year-old Lina, her younger brother and her mother and deport them from Lithuania to Siberia. Their crammed-full boxcar is labeled, ludicrously, "Thieves and Prostitutes." They work at a frigid gulag for eight months-hungry, filthy and brutalized by Soviet officers-before being taken to the Siberian Arctic and left without shelter. Lina doesn't know the breadth of Stalin's mass deportations of Baltic citizens, but she hears scraps of discussion about politics and World War II. Cold, starvation, exhaustion and disease (scurvy, dysentery, typhus) claim countless victims. Lina sketches urgently, passing her drawings along to other deportees, hoping they'll reach Papa in a Soviet prison. Brief flashbacks, seamlessly interwoven, illuminate Lina's sweet old life in Kaunas like flashes of light, eventually helping to reveal why the repressive, deadly regime targeted this family. Sepetys' flowing prose gently carries readers through the crushing tragedy of this tale that needs telling. (maps, timeline, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12 & up, adult)
School Library Journal (December 1, 2011)
Gr 8 Up-When teenager Lina and her family are ripped from their home in 1940s Lithuania, it's only the beginning of a terrible journey that will take her to a labor camp in Siberia as part of Stalin's forced relocation program. Moving, edifying, and quietly beautiful, Sepetys's well-researched novel is an exquisite look at a devastating atrocity. (Mar.) (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
5. CONNECTIONS
Holocaust Museum: this would be a good connection to make with the museum and talk about its history and importance.
https://gulaghistory.org/nps/ : this website was very helpful in learning the history of what was actually happening during this time period
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