One of my last year's favorites in that genre was R. J. Palacio's Wonder, a refreshing narrative about a 5th grade boy with a facial deformity. It's real and it's "worth the read!!"
This year, another realistic fiction fave, also found on the YA shelf, is Vince Vawter's Paperboy, another worthy read.** Possibly the locale and time, especially familiar to baby boomers, of mid-town Memphis, who grew up watching Howdy Doody, humming Elvis tunes and going to the Mid-South Fair, is what added to the appeal. My era, but not my locale, so my "draw" to the story was Vawter's use of "words;" unspoken, misused, stammered and revealing, as all were woven into the crux of the story.
Here are a few of Paperboy's reali-TEA gems:
- I'm typing about the stabbing for good reason. I can't talk. (p.1)
- Mr. Spiro moved his mouth....what came out was strange....like if you turned on the kitchen faucet to get a drink of water and sweet lemonade came out instead. (p.63)
- "You can't replace one hurt with another. You just get double hurts. (p. 92)
- "....felt so small....could be blown away by slightest puff of wind....But you don't have to worry about any kind of breeze showing up on a late July afternoon in Memphis." (p. 166)
- "Words in the air blow away as soon as you say them but words on paper last forever." (p.221)
- "One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." (James Earl Jones, p. 223)
A great book to savor with a cuppa The reali-TEA of such is that there is no such thing as a good book that's written just for young people---if it's well-written then it will appeal to everyone. Paperboy is just such a book.
**Later in January, Paperboy won a 2014 Newbery Honor and in April was selected by the American Library Association's Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth!
**Later in January, Paperboy won a 2014 Newbery Honor and in April was selected by the American Library Association's Top 10 Historical Fiction for Youth!
