Letting Ana Go by Anonymous

From Goodreads,

"In the tradition of Go Ask Alice and Lucy in the Sky, a harrowing account of anorexia and addiction.

She was a good girl from a good family, with everything she could want or need. But below the surface, she felt like she could never be good enough. Like she could never live up to the expectations that surrounded her. Like she couldn’t do anything to make a change.

But there was one thing she could control completely: how much she ate. The less she ate, the better—stronger—she felt.

But it’s a dangerous game, and there is such a thing as going too far…

Her innermost thoughts and feelings are chronicled in the diary she left behind."

Goodreads - Letting Ana Go

After reading Go Ask Alice I purchased the rest of the books in this series.  Out of all of them I was looking forward to reading Letting Ana Go the most.  I knew that I would have a connection with this book because it focuses on a girl struggling with her weight.  I have always been self conscious and have struggled to get the pounds off.  This book definitely had an impact on me, a very negative impact.

This book follows the unnamed girl who I will refer to Ana, as she unexpectedly embarks on a weight loss journey.  Ana is a high school student who is very active and fit.  Her cross country coach tells the team they have to start keeping food journals to ensure they are eating enough and not developing an eating disorder.  At first Ana keeps her health in check, but soon she starts obsessing over her weight and how much she is eating.  One of her friends starts to encourage her to eat less and workout more.  Tragedy strikes when Ana passes out at a cross country meet.  At that point it is discovered that she has anorexia.  For the rest of the book Ana, her family, and friends struggle to help her overcome this disease in hopes they can save her.

As I was reading this, Ana made it seem so easy to not eat and to just lose the weight.  She constantly saw herself as being fat, even though she was nowhere near that.  The longer I read this book, the more I realized I was unhappy with myself.  I kept thinking that I needed to start working out again and counting calories.  By the end of the book I had texted my boyfriend and said I was going to start working out again.  And then it hit me.  I had been sucked into the twisted obsession over my size.  I thought about how I didn't look how society says I should look.  It was at this point that I realized this book is very dangerous, especially if a young girl was to read this.  I have the self control to not go to the extreme that Ana went to in the book.  However, if a young teenage girl read this, I think she could easily get pulled into the book and start doing exactly what Ana did.  This book is completely dangerous because it glamorizes anorexia and makes it seem "fun" because you'll look amazing in the end.

This book really affected me because I felt like it preyed upon my insecurities and made me even more self conscious than I already am.  This book is completely dangerous and makes it seem so easy to lose the weight.  It lays it out how to easily drop the pounds and what to do to cover your tracks.  I give this book 1 star out of 5.  I don't recommend this book to anyone.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

From Goodreads,

"In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the  OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them. When Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape."

Goodreads - Ready Player One

Awards:

• Prometheus Award for Best Novel (2012)
• ALA Alex Award (2012)
• Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work (2016)

This isn't a book I would typically pick up and read.  My boyfriend and I had a conversation about our favorite books.  He's more of a gamer than a reader, so it definitely surprised me when he informed me he had a couple favorite books.  One was 1984, which I have yet to read, and the other was Ready Player One.  I picked up 1984 at Target because the book was on sale, but I was having trouble finding Ready Player One.  I ended up going to Austin, Texas to visit my best friend.  We went to a bookstore called The Book People and it was absolutely heaven for a book nerd like me.  I ended up finding the book.  It was the last copy.  And it was signed.  The author, Ernest Cline, lives in Austin and often frequents the bookstore.  I was ecstatic.  I texted him once I had checked out and he was pretty jealous of the fact that I found a signed edition of the book.  As I read the book I kept my boyfriend well updated on where I was at in the book and my overall thoughts.  Needless to say, I was not disappointed.

Ready Player One follows Wade Watts, also known as Parzival in the OASIS, as he journeys to find the ultimate prize.  The creator of the OASIS has passed away and has released a video stating that he has hidden clues in the OASIS that will lead to the egg that holds all the power.  The ultimate prize is ownership of the OASIS and all of his wealth.  Wade/Parzival decides to try to figure it out and ends up being the first to find the first clue.  From there Wade/Parzival must fight to find the rest of the clues and find the prize and he must fight to survive.

In the book, Wade/Parzival attended school through the OASIS.  Of course he was also trying to find the ultimate prize of Halliday's Easter Egg Hunt.  One of the things that I loved about this book was how it was centered around the virtual reality technology.  I think that Cline did an excellent job of describing the technology and how this virtual reality was utilized.  His inclusion of this advanced technology made the book even more realistic because this kind of technology is becoming more and more advanced and becoming more accessible to people.  The school that I work at received two virtual reality systems and they ended up purchasing two more.  I underwent training so that I would be able to utilize these in my classroom and it was absolutely amazing.  There are so many teaching opportunities with the virtual reality systems.  We can virtually explore different locations or things that will help further aid my student's understanding of the concept being taught.  The possibilities are endless with virtual reality being in a classroom.  I feel like our world is moving closer and closer to a world that Wade/Parzival lives in.  And while it is exciting to see where this technology can take us, it's also a little scary to think that I could one day be replaced by a virtual teacher.

I had only two downfalls for this book.  One of the downfalls was the amount of references that were made to games, movies, songs, quotes, etc. and the obscurity of some of those things.  A lot of the references would be considered obscure to normal folks like myself.  I'm not a gamer and I'm not nearly as familiar with gaming as my boyfriend is.  He warned me ahead of time that I might not understand all of the references and that it may affect how I interpreted the book.  I did not understand all of the references and that bothered me.  If I'm reading a book I want to at least somewhat understand what I'm reading or be able to visualize it in my head.  Some of the things referenced in the book were obscure enough that I had to choose to not understand it or to go look it up.  For me it was a pain to have to stop reading just to research what the characters were talking about in the book.  There was one incident near the end of the book where a game was being played and they were describing what it was like.  I could not, for the life of me, visualize this game.  I ended up having to stop reading and go research the game just so I could understand what they were talking about.  For me, it's okay to have to do this for a word or two in a book, but when it's a lot that you're stopping to Google, then it becomes a hassle.  I definitely didn't have to look up all the references, but I think overall it helped me better understand and enjoy the book even more.

The other thing that I wasn't happy about in this book was content at a very specific point in the book.  Parzival ends up with some money, finds that he is lonely, and purchases a brand new set up along with an adult doll that can be used for adult things.  When I got to this point in the book I was highly disappointed.  As I was reading I was excited to buy another copy of the book to put into my classroom library.  There were kids that I knew would love this book because of the gaming aspect.  But unfortunately, due to content, I didn't feel comfortable putting this in my library and definitely not comfortable recommending this to a student.

Overall, I have to give this book 5 stars even though I had to research some of the references and I wasn't happy with the adult content.  I highly recommend this book to any gamers and definitely think that high school students would enjoy this.  I'm looking forward to the release of the movie in March 2018.  Once I've seen it I'll come back and post my thoughts on how the movie compares with the book.  

Booked by Kwame Alexander

From Goodreads,

"Like lightning/you strike/fast and free/legs zoom/down field/eyes fixed/on the checkered ball/on the goal/ten yards to go/can’t nobody stop you/
can’t nobody cop you…
In this follow-up to the Newbery-winning novel THE CROSSOVER,  soccer, family, love, and friendship, take center stage as twelve-year-old Nick learns the power of words as he wrestles with problems at home, stands up to a bully, and tries to impress the girl of his dreams. Helping him along are his best friend and sometimes teammate Coby, and The Mac, a rapping librarian who gives Nick inspiring books to read.  
This electric and heartfelt novel-in-verse by poet Kwame Alexander bends and breaks as it captures all the thrills and setbacks, action and emotion of a World Cup match!"

Goodreads - Booked

Favorite quote from Booked, 

Books are fun, Nicholas, he says,

they're like

amusement parks

for readers.

This book keeps with Kwame Alexander's writing style of verse.  This follows the story of a young kid named Nick who loves playing soccer.  His mom is very involved in his life and enjoys challenging him in soccer.  Nick's best friend also plays soccer and is always encouraging him to ask out the girl of his dreams.  As the book progresses we realize that not everything is perfect in Nick's world thanks to bullies and his parents splitting.  The book climaxes at the perfect time and leaves the reader hanging on every word at the end.

A student recommended The Crossover to me a while back.  I enjoyed it because it was written in verse and it made for a very quick read.  I figured I would also enjoy Booked by Kwame Alexander because it was written in the same format.  I was able to finish this book in just a few short hours.  I really love that Alexander writes books in verse.  I find it difficult to locate books in verse that also have topics students would be interested in.  Students love these types of books because they say that they are fast to read because they don't have a full page of words.  I always recommend verse novels to students who hate reading because I can tell them the pages are even full pages of words!  I do think that many of my students would connect more with The Crossover than Booked, simply because basketball is a bigger sport than soccer in the town I live in.  If there was a book about football then I can almost guarantee that all of my students would be reading it!  I definitely hope that he continues his writing style and eventually comes out with more books with more sports topics and hopefully some female lead characters.

This book wasn't nearly as captivating as The Crossover.  I didn't feel like I connected with any of the characters in this book.  One thing that really bothered me was the interaction between Nicholas, Coby, and the twins who were bullies.  There seemed to be a lot of potential for the bullying aspect, but there were only a couple encounters that happened.  I just felt like if Alexander was going to use the bullying card in this book that he should probably have written the twins in with a more important role and they should have been bullying more than they actually were.  Of course I'm not condoning bullying, but I feel like there was an opportunity for the bullies to do something severe and for Nick to take action on what happened.  I also don't feel like Nick should have just handled the bullying situation on his own.  I would have preferred that he had told an adult so that it could have been handled properly.  As a teacher we are constantly telling students to report things like this.  But then we have books where the main character isn't reporting anything happening.  This in turn puts it into students' heads that they don't need to report bullying or anything else because they can just take care of it themselves.  Alexander really dropped the ball on the bullying situation in my opinion.  He had a huge opportunity for the bullies to be real bullies who were constantly and consistently picking on Nick and there was the opportunity for Nick to handle it by telling an adult.

This book was not nearly as good as The Crossover was.  I was disappointed because I was hoping this book would be even better.  I didn't feel like I ever connected with any of the characters in this book.  For that I have to give the book 3 stars.  I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys soccer or anyone who has struggled with their parents splitting.