(DLA Las Piñas GS LRC) December Book of the Month - Feathers

Feathers is a children’s historical novel by young adult fiction American writer Jacqueline Woodson that was first published in 2007. It was a Newbery Honor winner in 2008. The story is about a sixth grade girl named Frannie growing up in the 1970s.

One day an unexpected new student causes much chaos and tension to the class because he is the only white boy in the whole urban all African American school. He is soon dubbed “Jesus Boy” as some of the students believe that he is Jesus and others simply hope he is.

He is very quiet even when Trevor, the class bully, picks on him because he is the only one who is lighter skinned than himself (Trevor has a white father who left his mother before he was even born). He just calmly talks to him and never retaliates.

Jesus Boy knows sign language which intrigues Frannie since she has known sign language her whole life, growing up with a deaf older brother who is very sensitive to how people treat and perceive him. She is however hesitant about being friends with him because she does not understand him and she is torn because she knows how difficult it can be to be the new kid, but she does not want to stand out.

Frannie’s best friend Samantha believes that Jesus Boy truly is Jesus Christ and that he has come in this time of war. During all that is going on Frannie onstantly thinks of the poem by Emily Dickinson she read in class that said "hope is the thing with feathers". One day changes everything though and at the end, Frannie reflects on all that has been happening in her life.

She thinks of her mother’s baby, her brother, Samantha’s loss of faith, and, especially, Jesus Boy. She remembers the poem and decides “each moment, I am thinking, is a thing with feathers”. The book grapples with hard concepts such as religion, racism, hope, disabilities, and understanding. Feathers examines what it was like to grow up right after segregation had been outlawed, how all people are equal, and that hope is everywhere.

(DLA Las Piñas HS LRC) December Book of the Month - Lock and Key

Lock and Key is a novel written by realistic young adult fiction literature writer Sarah Dessen, published in 2008. The best-selling author explores the heart of a gutsy, complex girl named 17-year-old Ruby Cooper who is abandoned by her drug and alcohol-addicted mother and determined to make it on her own, even—and especially—when she is sent to live with her long-lost sister Cora in a whole new world of privilege, family, and relationships making her deal with unforeseen circumstances and becoming a reluctant modern-day Cinderella.

As she learns to trust again, Ruby realizes there’s a big difference between being given help and being able to accept it. We're featuring Lock and Key this month as we feel that the plot's motivations as stated below by Dessen only came on full actual circle sometime around Christmas time in the tale when Nate's father gets worse and the protagonist is already somewhat settling into her new life:

Ruby chose abuse and neglect as a key theme as she "...was really interested in taking on a different type of narrator. Most of my girls are from upper middle class families, living in pretty solid environments."

I was intrigued by taking a girl who WASN’T like that at all and dropping her into this whole new world. I liked the idea that you’d think it would solve all her problems—having a roof over her head, money, a family—but that it actually brought up a whole other set to deal with.

Also, I liked the idea of my narrator having to sort of “save” someone else in order to save herself. Another key theme was family. It started out with Ruby not knowing the true meaning of family, only thinking that it meant people related by blood or marriage. So in Ruby's mind, the only family she had was her mother and her sister.

But by the end of the book, Ruby realized that family is not only relatives, it's everyone who takes care of you, anyone who you trust, anyone who loves you. The concept of the English project sprung from her want to "...focus on the idea of family, and I thought it would be an interesting way to get Ruby thinking about it without it seeming too forced."

Love, life, and all of the above are what you’ll find in this new amazing read of moving on but hanging on both at the same time told in a quick-paced, flowing style. It'll have you up for hours. If you're a huge fan too, you'll surely find allusions to Dessen's other works. The fREADom hub at the High School Learning Resource Center of Divine Light Academy Las Piñas houses quite a number of the writer's novels including Lock and Key.