Number the Stars

Name of Book:  Number the Stars

Author:  Lois Lowry

Publisher: Laurel Leaf

ISBN: 978-0440227533

Audience: Ages 12 and up

Summary:  This is a story about a ten year old Danish girl, Annemarie, trying to help her Jewish friend, Ellen, in the middle of World War II. Annemarie’s family takes Ellen to be apart of their own in hopes of hiding her from the Nazi soldiers who are just beginning to search out Jewish family in their small Danish town of Copenhagen. Annemarie makes a daring journey to save her friend and her uncle from potential capture from the Nazis and shows that anyone with love for their friends can be a hero.

Literary elements at work in the story: The setting is in Copenhagen in the early 1940’s after Nazi Germany had occupied Denmark. The characters move around some and eventually end up close to the border of Sweden. Suspense also plays a key role in this story. From time to time the main characters encounter Nazi soldiers and it is unclear in the moment if they will go untouched.

(How) does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story?  The main character, Annemarie, is a ten year old girl who is faced with growing up much to fast. She is stuck between being a child who is carefree and more concerned with winning footraces than anything else, and a young woman who must face the Nazis in the midst of an overtaken country. She must also face the threat her friend Ellen has on her life simply because she is Jewish. Annemarie comes of age in this story and becomes a hero. It is uplifting to have a female child as the hero as this story would appeal to many experienced readers.

Theological conversation partners:  Matthew 22:34 -40 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two comandments hang all the law and the prophets.’

Annemarie and her family show unconditional love of their neighbors the Rosens. During the time of World War II they could have been easily killed for supporting their Jewish friends, but they give a great example of our calling as Christians to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Faith Talk Questions

1. Do you know people of other religions?

2. We live in a country with freedom of religion, but often times people outside of Christianity can be viewed differently because of their beliefs. How should we treat others that believe differently than we do?

3.  Have you ever lied to protect someone? Explain the story.

4.  How would God view that type of lie?

5.  What would you say to the Nazi soldiers?

6.  How would you comfort a friend who is scared?

7.  Who would you consider to be your neighbor?

8.  What can we do to better love our neighbor?

This review was written by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Russ Pearson.

Oggie Cooder

Name of Book:  Oggie Cooder

Author: Sarah Weeks

Publisher: Scholastic

ISBN: 9780439927949

Audience: Ages 8 – 12

Summary: Oggie Cooder is the class weirdo. Donnica Perfecto is his chief nemesis. She wants to win a talent show audition and thinks Oggie’s carving of cheese into shapes is the best way to win. But it is Oggie that inadvertently wins. With Donnica as his manager he is bound to succeed. Soon Oggie learns that fame has its downsides and that Hollywood is Donnica’s dream, not his.

Literary elements at work in the story: The plot is understandable and appropriate for the age level. It is clear and well organized, fast paced and funny. The characters, though quirky, are believable. The secondary characters are a bit stereotypical – spoiled girls, jock boys – but they do not distract much from the story.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economics/ability make a difference to the story?: This is an imaginative story about friendships and the urge to be popular. Oggie’s conflict between fitting in and finding himself is very relatable.

Scripture: Romans 12:17-21

Theology:  Oggie knows what the writer of this passage knows; that kindness, not revenge, is what really matters in life. Oggie had all kinds of reasons to resent those around him, especially Donnica.  Donnica used him and yet in the end, Oggie not only lets it go, but works to make Donnica’s dream come true. Live as Oggie did and you too will be able to leave vengeance to God where it belongs!

Faith Talk Questions:

1. How do other kids at Oggie’s school feel about him?
2. How would you feel about someone in your school like Oggie?
3. Have kids ever teased you for what you have worn or something you have done?  If so, how did you handle it?
4. Oggie sits with his friend Amy at lunch every day. Why do you think nobody else wants to sit with them? Are there kids that sit alone at your school?  Why?
5. It is very important to Donnica to become famous. This seems to be a popular trend in our society. Why do you think it is so important for people to be famous? What would be good/bad about being famous?
6. Even after all that Donnica puts Oggie through, he still allows her to be his manager. Why do you think this is?
7. What can you do to live up to the words in this passage from scripture?

Review prepared by regular contributor Janet Lloyd

Catcher Caught

Name of Book:   Catcher Caught

Author:   Sarah Collins Honenberger

Illustrator:   None

Publisher:   Amazon Encore

Audience:   High School and adult (age 15+)

Summary:   Daniel, a high school student, has been diagnosed with a virulent form of leukemia.  Even with chemotherapy, his doctors estimate he has only one year to live.  But his overprotective parents don’t trust doctors and pull him out of school to treat him with alternative remedies.  While Daniel sympathizes with his parents’ grief and helplessness over his disease, he begins to question people’s intentions and authority.  He has read Catcher in the Rye and is inspired by Holden Caulfield’s questioning of authority.  While searching for identity in the face of death, Daniel also deals with normal teenage issues (Does the new girl in town like him?  How can he keep her interest when she is in school and surrounded by other guys who are interested in her?).  As Daniel struggles to gain some control over his life and death, he takes a cue from Holden and runs off to New York City.

Literary Elements at work in the story: This book is told in first person point of view.  It addresses questions that have no easy answers.  Should Daniel have a say in his own life and the treatment he receives?  What exactly is a minor’s right to receive treatment?  What if the minor’s choice goes against his/her parents’ wishes?  How far along the line of the rights of minors are you willing to go?  How do your actions affect others, even if you are dying?  The author has Daniel make frequent allusions to Catcher in the Rye.  However, adequate explanations smooth the way for readers who have not read Salinger’s classic (or have not read it in a long time!) so that the thread of the story is not lost.

Perspective on gender/race/culture/economic/ability:  While gender, race, culture, economic status, and ability are not factors in this book, the author does present a perspective on age.  Because Daniel is 15, he is not consulted about the treatment of his leukemia.  He is not consulted about a trip to Mexico where he undergoes an alternative medicine approach.  He and his younger brother Nick make a macabre joke of the name of the herbalist from whom their mother seeks advice; the boys refer to her as Miss T. Undertaker.  Finally realizing that the alternative medicine route is not working, Daniel takes matters into his own hands and runs away to New York City (ala Holden Caulfield) to ask for chemotherapy.  Reference is made to legislation permitting minors age 13 and older who are fully informed about their choices to have a voice in the treatment of their disease.

Scripture:  Exodus 20:12; Psalm 88:13; Psalm 121; Hebrews 2:14-15;

Theology:  Responsibility,Facing death/dying, Healing , Family

Faith Talk Questions:

1. Daniel wonders:  “Why do grown-ups always think what kids feel is fluff and can’t possibly be significant?” (p. 21) How would you answer him?
2. To what extent should a teenager have a voice in the course of treatment sought/followed when the teenager has a serious illness?  Explain your opinion.  What might prevent or encourage the seriously ill teenager to speak up regarding a course of treatment?  If there is disagreement, how much weight should be given to the opinions of the parents, the seriously ill teenager, and the doctors?
3. How will the enjoyment and understanding of this book be affected if the reader has not first read Catcher in the Rye?
4. Why does Daniel admire Holden Caulfield?  What fictional characters do you admire?  Why? How has the admired character affected your actions or beliefs?  For example, the three-year-old who jumps off the roof so that he can fly like Superman.  (For adults) How have the admired fictional characters changed over the course of your life?
5. How do Nick and Meredith act as lifelines for Daniel?
6. Daniel says “If they (his parents) act normal at least part of the time, it takes a lot of pressure off me.”  What does he mean?  How can parents “act normal” in the face of a seriously ill/dying child?
7. Daniel’s family is not conventionally religious.  From what sources do they draw strength?  From what sources do you draw strength in times of crisis?
8. What is “family”?  How does Daniel’s definition of family change over the course of this book?
9. Other discussion questions appear at the end of this book.

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary alumna Mary Anne Welch

Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls

Name of Book:  Things I Have to Tell You: Poems and Writing by Teenage Girls

Editor:  Betsy Franco

Photography:  Nina Nickles

Publisher:  Candlewick Press

ISBN: 0-978-0-7636-1035-7

Audience:  14 and up. Contains strong language and sexual imagery.

Summary:  Betsy Franco was inspired by a conversation with a teenage friend who expressed feelings that Betsy remembered in her own adolescence.  She realized how important it was for teenage girls to communicate their experiences, and this was the impetus behind Things I Have to Tell You.  In powerful poetry and prose, this collection explores the intense, unstable, lonely, turbulent emotional life of American girls coming of age.  Much of it is difficult to take as it exposes the stifling load of perfection, conformity, competition and sensuality heaped on the fragile adolescent psyche.  Secrets, anxiety, escape, tears, honesty, identities, appearances, bodies, hair, and the perpetual judgment of men saturate these strange and beautiful revelations about what they think it means to be a woman.  One wants to “break the stereotype of a girl as a dainty little thing who needs a man by her side in order to do anything,” while another brags “This coquette can get/any man she’s set/eyes upon/a female Don Juan/the best/I confess/cannot help but obsess/over me/devil walking/in one hell of a dress.” Candid black and white photos of girls in their element, hanging out, in front of mirrors, cars, boys, each other, blurry with energy and startling intimate clarity add a visual dimension to each piece. Some of them are remarkably mature, others painfully naive, all of them touch the adolescent that still lurks in middle aged hearts.

Literary Elements:  This book would be an excellent primer on poetry for high school creative writing, loaded with expressive images and metaphors:  Hair that blows in the wind because it’s growing regrets, conformity that grows back like a dandelion pulled up but with roots deep in the ground, steam that curls off bath water. Most of it is free verse and streaming consciousness prose,  executed with the discipline of clearly developed themes and the mechanics of good writing.

Theology:  God is curiously missing from the entire collection.  I find it hard to believe that there are no teenagers thinking and writing about their spiritual life.  Every one of the pieces is centered around a self in a world of other selves.  Perhaps that’s why so many of them are sad and lonely.  Their strength seems comes from resistance to peer pressure, authority, and cultural mandates. Love is something to control, except in “A Letter To My Great Grandmother,” which is a deeply spiritual tribute to the kind of self-emptying love that characterizes Christian life.

Review prepared by Union Presbyterian Seminary student Susan Wills