Empowering the Powerless

 When I was in 5^th grade, I was on the top of the world. I was Student Council President, President of my personally chartered “Royalty Club” – complete with color coordinated friendship bracelets for all members – lead in the school play, and the most popular girl in elementary school.

Life was grand.

And then it all came crashing down in one fell swoop. The mighty had fallen.

Between 6^th and 12^th grade, I was the victim of relentless bullying, the primary subject of all rumors, and I remember crying nightly into my pillow over all of the adolescent angst and ridicule. I begged my mother to let me stay home, to keep me from the horrors that lie waiting for me at school. Middle and high school were by far the hardest period of my entire life, and now as a teacher of middle and high school students, I feel devoted to making their lives easier and infinitely better than mine was at that age. Unfortunately, however, the urban setting in which I work has exposed me to much more traumatic experiences than the “simple” bullying I endured – I hear about rampant sexual abuse and rape, self-mutilation, and depression from my students that would make your heart break.

Hence, the topic for my annotated bibliography revolves around the teenage struggle, primarily the aforementioned issues that my students divulge to me on a regular basis. I had hoped to create a bibliography that would address all of the issues, and also offer hope and help to those that seek it.

Annotated Bibliography

1.)  Halse Anderson, Laurie. (1999). Speak. 
                    New York, New York: 
                    The Penguin Group.

“It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.”

This sentiment, spoken by the main character of the novel, accurately sums up the attitude and position of the narrator Melinda Sordino upon entering her freshman year of high school. Though readers are unaware exactly what transpired over the course of the summer, it is obvious that something has estranged Melinda from her childhood friends and she is facing the tumultuous first day alone.

Melinda travels through the course of the day meeting her teachers and forming first day opinions of her teachers, but with the exception of her art teacher Mr. Freeman. Not long after, Melinda stumbles upon a secret janitor’s closet and seeks refuge in order to survive her freshman year. Throughout the course of the novel, Melinda gains a trust with her art teacher and mentor, and by the end of the school year is able to find her voice and speak out and defend herself from the scrutiny and ridicule she suffered. She confronts her attacker and is able to bring a certain level of justice to her situation as a rape victim. Her voice is heard, and Melinda is able to speak again.

This novel is more than “coming of age”, as some critics have labeled it. It is an accurate account of the ways in which peers and adolescents can silence each other with their narrow-minded views and misconceptions. Because Melinda’s peers never really knew what happened to her at the infamous party, she was ostracized and left alone to battle the wounds of rape. Many of my students and many adolescents today are familiar with this crime, and unfortunately too many of my urban youth have dealt with it personally or with one of their friends. The beautiful thing about Speak is that even if the reader has not personally dealt with the issue of rape, most all adolescents can identify with Melinda’s fear of fitting in and finding a true friend. This story is all about acceptance and struggling with personal demons, whether or not the demon is sexual assault.

I have personally taught Speak in my classroom, and find it to be a compelling read and hit with my students. In studying this novel, I concentrated on the school climate and the obvious “groupings” of the student body. My students analyzed the school structure and the teachers, making personal and societal connections throughout the read. In addition, the writing is exceptionally witty and well crafted, lending a discussion of voice and point of view to instruction. As a word of caution, I would suggest finding a way of incorporating a male protagonist into this unit of study, whether through another text such as The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, or with a film such as Finding Forrester. Many of my male students enjoyed the novel, but had a hard time identifying with Melinda. Additionally, rape is not solely an act of female victimization, and it is important to find away of incorporating a discussion about victims coming in all shapes and forms, not just targeted young girls. Overall, it is an excellent whole class read, even with dealing with such an intense topic.

2.)  Feuereisen, Patti. (2009). Invisible girls: The truth 
              about sexual abuse.
              New York: New York. Perseus Books Group.

This book by Dr. Parry Feuereisen gives an incredible insight into the lives and struggles of young women who have fallen victim to sexual abuse.  Riddled with mind blowing statistics regarding the prevalence of sexual abuse, the book highlights the personal stories of several young girls who have chosen to speak out against their oppressors. Many young women remain silent, and Dr. Patti has given help and courage to hundreds of girls who otherwise never found their voice. The grounding philosophy behind this book is that girls need to talk about their stories in order to recover from them.  Healing does not happen alone, and the longer one remains silent, the harder it will be to have a complete healing.  Another very powerful theme is that the families of sexual abuse victims need to take action and find a means of protecting teenage girls.  Dr. Patti urges mothers to be especially proactive with their daughters, as statistics reveal that mothers who are in tune with their daughters are more likely to prevent an act of sexual abuse than those who are absent from their daughter’s life.

The potential for this text in the classroom is significant and extensive, as I wish I had been granted access to the information during my class study of Speak. It compliments Speak beautifully, addressing a girl’s instinct to remain silent when such an injustice has been enacted upon her. Melinda is very much like the girls in the book, and each story has a common thread of shame and disgrace woven through the account. It is a wonderful non-fiction text that also adds a wealth of powerful statistics to back up the rampant sexual abuse in this country, and those statistics could make for an incredible research or inquiry project with older students.

3.)  Carter, Thomas (Director). (2001). Save the Last Dance 
                [Motion Picture].
                United States: Paramount.

Save the Last Dance tells the story of Sara, a rising ballet dance, who loses her mother to a fatal car accident. With her mother’s death, Sara is forced to leave home and all that she knows to move in with her estranged father, whom she calls ‘Roy’, in a rough neighborhood in New York City. At the time of her mother’s death, Sara was auditioning for a spot at the Julliard School of Dance, and with the tragedy, abandons her life as a dancer. Dealing with the loss and underlying guilt of the accident, Sara keeps a strong distance from her father and any other means of comfort. On the first day of class at her new inner city school (as one of the few white girls) Sara has a battle of wits with Derek, a kid in her English class. Soon after she meets his sister and becomes fast friends with the group, finding her way to the local club scene. Unable to separate her professional classic ballet training from the upbeat and raunchy grinding of club dance moves, Sara and Derek begin exploring their relationship their mutual love of dance. Life on the streets gets in the way, and Sara and Derek are put through circumstances, which truly test the limit of their love. The film culminates in a moving sequence in which Sara re-auditions for her spot at Julliard as Derek looks on behind the curtains.

Save the Last Dance has been popular for the past decade among the adolescent crowd, as it deals with race, poverty, death of a loved one, strained parent/child relationships, and the loss of hope. Sara embodies the struggling adolescent, and actually is able to maintain her academics while searching for her lost identity. This film is universal, and allows so many discussions in the secondary classroom. Though I am not sure I would show this film it its entirety, as some of the scenes are rather suggestive even for the modern day teenager, the film has a strong message of determination and perseverance.  Easily, a teacher could gather materials around the idea of rising above geography and trying situations to achieve a dream. Either one could look at prominent figures in society who overcame the odds, such as Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey, or a unit could be developed exploring students’ dreams and how they might reach them. The possibilities are endless.

4.)   Shaw, Susan. (2002). Black eyed Suzie. Honesdale: Pennsylvania. Front Street Press.

This novel tells a chilling account of 12 year-old Suzie who has been a subject of serious domestic abuse throughout her childhood. When the book begins, Suzie can no longer eat, sleep, or talk, and she sits slumped over in a chair most of the time. She has lost the ability to function due to the severity of the abuse, though her mother fails to recognize how severe the situation is. It takes Suzie’s uncle to recognize her demise, and he finally persuades her family to admit her to a mental hospital to recover. It is there that Suzie is slowly able to tell her story and realize the depth to which she has been scarred. Her recovery is slow until a situation with her sister finds Suzie triumphantly jumping to her rescue, and with that act the domestic abuse is discovered.

I included this text in my annotated bibliography to serve as an example of how a different type of abuse can debilitate a young girl. So much is said about sexual abuse and rape, that often times the abuse within a family, especially a mother, can go overlooked. I know several of my students who suffer from domestic abuse, and they are unaware that it is wrong for parents to inflict any type of emotional or physical abuse upon them. In the secondary ELA classroom, I would pair this text with the novel Push or the film adaptation Precious. Though I would not teach those pieces in my classroom, I feel confident that I could use Black-eyed Suzie to discuss the abuse as it is not nearly as gruesome as the violence that is depicted in Push. This text also features a vignette format, very reminiscent to that of Sold and The House on Mango Street, so I would recommend doing a genre study in which the format and style of the text is addressed.

5.)   Christopher, Lucy. (2010). Stolen. New York: New York.
                    Scholastic.

Written in an entirely different point of view, this novel by Lucy Christopher tells the tale of a 16 year-old girl, Gemma, who is “stolen” from an airport in Bangkok and taken to the Australian Outback by her captor, Ty. In contrast to the usual predator role, Ty is a young, handsome man and has stolen her because he is very much in love with her and has been planning this abduction for years. Gemma is all alone in a desolate landscape, as no one knows of her disappearance. The story is told in letter format from Gemma to Ty, and it reveals the story of their relationship as it unfolds in the Outback. 

This novel is part of my annotated bibliography because it reaches at the heart of the teenage struggle – the battle between right and wrong. Gemma has been abducted and is in a situation beyond her control, but she is able to discern between the situation and the person – and she sees her captor for what he truly is. The novel is brilliantly crafted, and in teaching this novel in the secondary classroom I would suggest a focus on character development and an exploration of creating setting. Christopher uses her setting as the most fundamental element of the story, creating almost three main characters in that of Ty, Gemma, and the Australian Outback. The images and descriptions of the setting take on a life of their own, adding a richness that would leave the plot worthless in its absence. Students could use the characters from the novel and create an entirely difference setting, aiming to add the same dynamic and intensity as the Outback offers Stolen. Thematically, it would be feasible to use this novel as a jumping off point for a discussion of perspective. Normally, one would not see a “victim” fall in love with their “captor”, as Gemma does with Ty. Nor would we see the captor role so fantasized and glamorous, as Christopher makes Ty. The point of view of the narrator distorts our stereotypical vision of the abduction, and offers an incredible and fresh insight. This text may be difficult to get through with a whole class unit, but it could work very well in literature circles.

6.)   McCormick, Patricia. (2006). Sold. New York: New York.
                    Hyperion.

Sold, by Patricia McCormick, is a departure from the more modern adolescent tales of struggle, as this story revolves around a 13 year-old girl who is sold into prostitution in Nepal. At the start of the story, Lakshmi is enjoying life on her family’s small farm in a small village, even though they are a poor in a struggling economy. When a severe monsoon destroys the rest of the family’s crops, Lakshmi’s father introduces her to a glamorous stranger with the idea that she will accompany this woman to work as a maid in the city. Instead, Lakshmi is taken to the city under false pretenses, and soon she realizes she has been sold into prostitution.  Lakshmi befriends several other girls at the “Happiness House” and learns how to survive the horrible conditions in which she now lives. At the end of the novel, Lakshmi is forced to make a decision that could either bind her to that world forever, or liberate her from all her unhappiness.

I chose to incorporate this into my annotated bibliography as it was recommended to me by one of my students at the beginning of the school year, and once I picked it up I couldn’t put it down. I read the piece from cover to cover, and enjoyed McCormick’s use of imagery and authentic voice. Although it is not a typical teenage read, the literature revolves around an adolescent who is forced into the unthinkable – in a different time, in a different place, in an entirely different world. I would definitely use this text as a whole class read, though some of the pages I might gloss over because of the highly sexual content. The book is written in vignettes, and it would be easy to select only certain vignettes to discuss as a whole group. A comparison in style could be made between this and Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, and the comparison could culminate in a study of genre and style with the students creating their own narrative vignettes. Additionally, the idea of the sexual slave trade could be paired with more recent films such as Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Taken (2008).

7.)  Kiriakou, Emanuel, & Hamilton, Priscilla Renea. (2011).
            Who says.  [Recorded by Selena Gomez & the Scene].
           CD Single. Burbank, California: Hollywood Records. 

Perry, Katie. (2010). Firework. [Recorded by Katy Perry]. 
                      On Teenage Dream [CD]. NewYork City, 

                     New York: Capitol Records.

Pink. (2011). F*ing Perfect. [Recorded by Pink].
                      On Greatest Hits…So Far!! [CD].
                      Los Angeles, California: LaFace.

I went out on a limb and I am including three popular culture song hits of the past year. The recent recognition of bullying in this country has prompted many pop artists to take action and address this issue. All three songs are anthems for acceptance, and the subjects can be universal, but play exceptionally well in my annotated bibliography for young women. Pink’s song is very closely tied to the self injury topic, and the video is a haunting depiction of a girls’ struggle to find her identity. I am constantly using audio and printed lyrics in the classroom, and I think it is important in the secondary classroom to include popular culture in order to relate to the students and spark conversation around the media trends. So many young women look to these artists and model them, and therefore the focus on embracing identity is especially powerful when these particular artists endorse that issue.  When using the songs, it is important to play the music video so that students can see a visual of the story that has been created, and compare how the text plays with the visual representation. Additionally, students could storyboard an alternative scenario for the song, using the lyrics to campaign for another teen issue.