Angela never felt quite right as a girl. Everything in her life has lead up to the day that she decides to come out as Grady, a transgendered individual. Even though Grady feels ready to come out, he isn't prepared for the reactions of his friends, family, and those surrounding him. He doesn't understand why people can't just let him be himself, be the person that he always knew he was. Through finding friends in un-expected places and finding his possible first love, Grady begins to finally find support and acceptance. Will this allow him to finally become comfortable in his own skin?

For anyone looking for a good novel about a transgendered individual, they don't have to look much further than Parrotfish. Since the novel is told from the point of view of the transgendered character, readers are able to gain insight into a world that they might not know much about. I think this was the main reason I liked this novel so much. That, and Grady is such a relatable character. Even if you aren't a transgendered individual, Grady struggles with accepting himself, and not caring about what other people think of him, which are problems that basically everyone deals with. His character is also very well developed, making him even more relatable. Parrotfish is an important novel because it gives voice to a community that doesn't get a voice in literature very often, and it does it well, which isn't always the case. If someone is looking to better understand the transgender community, Parrotfish is a good place to begin.

For a classroom setting, I don't think this could necessarily be taught to the class, but it is a novel that is worth keeping on the shelf, especially if you have students going through similar things to Grady. It would also be a good novel to keep around in case students have questions about the transgender community. It can definitely help to open students eyes to a community that they might not necessarily know a lot about.

In 1943, a British spy plane crashes in Nazi occupied France. The pilot and its passenger are best friends, and now one has a chance at survival, while the other doesn't stand a chance, being arrested by the Gestapo while trying to carry out her mission. Now, Verity weaves an intricate confession for the Gestapo, telling the story of how her and Maddie became friends and how they ended up in France in the first place. Will her confession be enough to keep her alive in the enemies eyes?

At the beginning of the semester, I had read about this book on a blog somewhere, and the blogger was absolutely raving about it. She said once she finished, she wanted everyone else to read it just so she could discuss it with them. When the guest speaker came into class and also book-talked it, I was hooked. I knew that this was a book that I wanted to put on my list. And I'm glad I did. Wein has the reader hooked right from the beginning, jumping right into the story and hooking you with the voice of Verity. Verity is such a spunky character, and despite the fact that she has been tortured by Nazis and is most likely not going to survive her imprisonment, she is still witty and funny and fights back whenever she can. Reading her story gives you a different view of World War II, one that isn't used very often, if at all. Usually when WWII is talked about, it is from the Concentration Camps, or the Nazis, or something of like. Instead, it's told from women air force soldiers, who were very rare during this time, but existed none the less. I thought the way that Wein weaved the story, telling it from two different points of view, and the way that she had everything come together at the end was beautiful and very well written. Once I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down. This is definitely worthy of the Printz nomination that it was given.

As for a classroom, I think this book would definitely work well in a history class, because it does deal with WWII, and in a different way than other literature. It would especially work if there was a unit discussing women in the war, and their duties and such. This is a subject that isn't always touched on in history classes, and it would be a good way to give students this perspective. Overall, Code Name Verity is an excellent book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in this period of history, or anyone interested in adventure/high action stories in general.

Mr. Ward started something called Open Mike Fridays in his English class one day after one student decided to read a poem he had written in response to one of their assignments. The rest of the class takes this in stride, and each week students read their own poetry in front of the class, poems that pertain to their lives and the various issues that each of them are dealing with. Throughout the school year, the students learn a lot more about each other, and realize that they are all more alike than they thought. Each poem gives voice to each of the "stereotypes" in their school: the jock, the teenage mom, the tough rapper, the beauty queen, the artist, etc. In the end, they realize that even though they all come from different backgrounds and deal with different things, they are all more similar than they first realized.

I started this book without really knowing what it was about, I just knew that it somehow dealt with multicultural issues. I found that I liked the way the book was formatted, with the narrative of the student, and then the poem depicting whatever issue they were dealing with at the time. Anyone reading this book could probably find a character that has similar problems to them, and it sometimes helps to know that other people deal with the same things that you do, as the characters learn in the book. I think this book also helps to make poetry cool, as seen through the way the students react when their teacher allows them to create this poetry and read it to the class once a week. They enjoy creating something of their own and being able to show others that they don't necessarily fit the image that was thrust upon them by the rest of the school. Bronx Masquerade definitely shows a melting pot in this high school, and shows that no matter what your skin color, you can get along with everyone else.

For a classroom setting, I think this book would be really good to use in some kind of poetry unit, or multicultural unit, or perhaps the blending of both. The poetry of the students in the book might inspire some of your own students to want to create their own poetry, which is something not a lot of students actually get excited about. Bronx Masquerade could definitely be an excellent tool in almost any classroom setting.