All the Bright Places ...in all the right places

They stand on the ledge of a tower on their high school's campus, both afraid to look down.

Neither person knows the other has come for the same reason - to end their lives. When they finally notice each other, Theo immediately abandons his plans for ending his life and focuses on helping the girl that stands before him.  And so begins Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places, a unique and captivating young adult story.

Theo and Violet find themselves connected by the event on the ledge because the rest of the high school student body has seen "The Freak" and "Miss Popularity" hanging out on the ledge together. What follows is a story of two unlikely individuals trying to help the other survive their teenage years.

While it is a boy meets girl story, it certainly is not the typical teenage romance - far from it. This story unfolds and resolves in an unexpected way. Theo works hard to show Violet that life is worth living. He pushes her and encourages her, even when she is fickle and simply "blah." Most of all, he accepts the real Violet - the Violet the no one really knows. Theo shakes up Violet's life and she is changed because of it.

Although this book is very much about Violet, it is much more Theo's story. He is eccentric and has been struggling with depression most of his life. He deals with his depression without all on his own, which explains his eccentricity. His family and friends just accept his odd behavior, while the typical students at his high school shun him because of it. Theo deals the best way he knows how, and the reader hurts for Theo. There is a lot to be frustrated about throughout the story, but one thing is for sure, we root for Theo from page one.

Niven's characterization of Theo is the real strength of the book. Theo's character is so real and well done that his journey becomes the reader's journey. We understand Theo's struggle because we walk in his shoes, and as journey with him, we learn a lot about the awful disease of depression. I think we also learn quite a bit about how to support people who battle the disease. We see how to help Theo, but we realize how tricky it is because he is so fragile.

Because Theo is so intense and complicated, because his journey is so real to the reader, this is an emotional read. However, it was probably the best book I read this year. It is a story everyone should read. So don't hang out on the ledge too long, get down, pick up the book, and enter Theo's world for a while. I promise you will be forever changed if you do.

I'll Give You the Sun and Then Some

Over winter break, I read every tweet and every "Best Books of 2014" list I could find, and I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson was everywhere I looked. With the support of book nerds like myself, I wasted no time in ordering it from Amazon.  When it arrived I was anxious to start it and see what the hype was all about. I even pushed my monthly book club read aside in favor of it.

Sometimes when there has been a lot of talk about a book, actually reading it turns out to be a bit of a let down because we expect too much.  Not so this time. This book matched its reputation and the time spent between its pages was time well-spent.

The book tells the story of twins - Noah and Jude.  Do not be mislead; Jude is a female.  They are the only children of a beautiful, spirited mother who writes books about art and artists. Both twins adore her and believe it or not, this is the heart of the main conflict in the book.

The story is told between alternating points of view:  Jude at 16 and Noah at 13/14. I thought this was a brilliant way to peel back the layers of both the characters and pave the road to the resolution. I never felt confused by this but rather I lost myself in both of their stories so much that I was sorry I had to leave one character and journey with another.  I adored both characters and the stories that shaped them and connected them.

That is the true strength of the plot, in my opinion.  While each character is bogged down with very different troubles, Jude and Noah are always connected. That unusual connection shapes their choices, their feelings, their thoughts and the heart of their struggles. Jandy Nelson develops them as individuals with much depth, but she also strongly develops their connection to each other and the lives they lead.

In addition, the issues are contemporary and also deep. Because I am an only child, I had never considered sibling competition for parental attention and approval, or how challenging it might be to share the same talents in a family. The book reminded me, too, that parental interactions shape teenagers a lot more than teens are willing to own up to.

This book touches so many issues that boys, girls, men and women could all pick it up and enjoy it.  In fact, that is what I recommend you do: put it at the top of your TBR pile and be prepared to be given the sun and then some.

Always...

On a very long ride from Kentucky to New Jersey my younger daughter asked my older daughter if she could borrow the DVD copy of The Great Gatsby.  The older daughter responded with, "Have you read the book?"  To which the younger daughter replied, "No." Big sister told little sister she couldn't watch the DVD. "After you read the book," she said. Inside I chuckled and thought, "Hooray."

I cheered at my daughter demanding a reading before watching, because as good as some movie adaptations have been, none have been better than the book.

When we watch a movie without reading the book, we have to settle or concede to someone else's reading experience each time we sit down to a screen adaptation. Before I saw the movie The Hunger Games but after the casting was done, I thought the casting for the male leads was all wrong:  Liam Hemsworth would have made a better Peeta and Josh Hutcherson a better Gale - at least in my mind. (I still wonder about these choices, as a matter of fact.)

Once I've read the book, it becomes part of me. These characters are my friends. I can anticipate what they might say or do in situations.  I know their friends and their family, their loves and their fears. Their towns are places I have been to.  I can imagine their rooms, their dinner tables and their favorite places to eat.  I have lived with them and loved them. The truth is I don't like anyone messing with them (even their creators sometimes, but that is for another time).

Please don't get me wrong, I am not opposed to books being made into films.  Not at all.  As a reader, I celebrate such success.  I wonder if those responsible for the adaptation will get it right? Some of it? None of it? Dare I hope, all of it? I get excited, watch trailers, share trailers, go see the movies with my students, and then show clips from those movies for years to come.  If I haven't read the book and I wish to see the movie, the impending release of a book-turned-movie usually spurs me (my students, and my family) to read the book if I haven't, and then I spend hours comparing the two with my family, friends, students, and people I have never met.  Perhaps I may even write essays, letters and blogs on the two. Sometimes it helps me to know the characters better, to see a side of them that maybe I hadn't noticed before. Many times seeing the movie enhances my reading experience.

But it is important to read the book first.  Reading the book enables me to know when the movie makers captured the essence of the characters I know so well, placed the emphasis on just the right problems and created just the right setting. And when they don't?  Then I haven't really been cheated at all because I have my book experience to carry and cherish within me. I can rest knowing Tris is still Tris even if she didn't seem so tough and brave in the movie version of Divergent.

So not my idea of Tris Prior

So, no matter how many tears I cried during the movie The Fault In Our Stars, or how much I laughed at Haymitch's antics in The Hunger Games movie or even how much I adored Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, the book is, was and always will be better.

Gregory Peck was definitely the right choice for Lee's Atticus Finch