Module 7 - Brutal

Summary

Poe Holly lives with her surgeon mother in Los Angeles.  One day, Poe’s mother decides to spend a year in South America helping the poor, so she ships Poe off to Benders Hallow to live with the father she has not seen in sixteen years.  Upon arriving at her new home, Poe meets her neighbor, a boy called “Velveeta.”  On her first day of school, Poe meets Theo, a boy who is a bit of a rebel like she is.  Despite the school’s firm stand that there be no cliques and everyone be seen as the same, Poe realizes that the school, itself, through its rules and policies, creates a division between the students, dividing them into the cool kids and the “losers.”  The division is so strong that after a student sis nearly beaten to death by some jocks, the school addresses the issue with the “losers,” those who are bullied instead of with the bullies themselves.  Angered by what she sees, Poe tries to fight all of the “stupid” rules, but she goes about it in such away that it just alienates those around her.  She must learn to fight effectively in order to change the system, but, by doing this, she puts herself, Velveeta and Theo in danger.

Bibliography

Harmon, M. (2009).  Brutal.  New York, NY:  Random House.

My Impression

I LOVED this book so much that I am going to use it in my classroom with my students.  It is a powerful book with a great message.  In the book, Poe comes to realize something that so many young adults need to learn: there is a proper way to fight for and achieve what you want to accomplish.  Poe is a totally likeable, dynamic character.  There are many facets to her personality. She is not afraid to be different in appearance and attitude. She is both strong and vulnerable.  She is a flawed character.  However, as she discovers what her flaws are, she takes steps to fix them.  She is a strong girl who is not afraid to act when she sees something that she thinks is wrong, even if her actions are a bit misguided at first.  I actually liked all of the major characters in this book.  I was immediately able to empathize with Velveeta and was properly appalled by the bullying he must deal with.  I liked Theo’s sarcasm and view of the world.  I even liked Poe’s seemingly weak father.  I also felt that this was a pretty accurate portrayal of a high school (minus the microchips in the student ids), with its condoned conformity and the separation of some students from the rest of the group.

To Read or Not to Read:  I definitely think that you should read this book.

Professional Reviews

School Library Journal
 "Poe Holly's mother has left for South America, obviously caring more about healing sick strangers in the jungle than being a parent to her own daughter. Sixteen-year-old Poe is sent off to live with her long-absent father in her mother's absence. Starting a new school, making new friends, and getting to know the man who is her father would be enough for any teen, but not for Poe. After meeting her much-picked-on neighbor, a misfit boy nicknamed Velveeta, she also takes on the crusade to change the school's unfair policies and end the reign of the bully making Velveeta's life miserable. Poe is a likable teen who speaks her mind and stands up for what she believes. The bullying and the strong language are realistic, and the author does not shy away from the violence of Velveeta's situation. Brutal can be just that, but teens who pick up this book will discover well-developed characters and a plot that seizes their attention at the very beginning and holds it captive throughout the story." - Heather Miller
Miller, H. E. (2009, June). [Book review of the book Brutal, by M. Harmon]. School Library Journal, 55(6), 126. Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com.

Kirkus Reviews

"An angry 16-year-old shakes up her school when she challenges its social order. When Poe moves from Los Angeles to suburban California to live with her father, a man she has no relationship with, she's furious: furious at her dynamo doctor of a mother for deserting her to take a year's sabbatical to care for the poor and furious at her dad for his neglect and emotional passivity. The focus of this highly charged novel is not Poe's dysfunctional family, however, but a question that has dogged high-school students from time immemorial. Why is it that the more socially elite students get to prey upon the less so? And the rather savvy answer Harmon comes up with is that it's because the adults who run the school allow it. A mention of Columbine at a faculty-student meeting somewhat negates this premise, as it reverses the power dynamic in readers' minds, and some of the characterizations, such as Poe's perfect boyfriend, seem more functional than fully human. Still, strong medicine with a strong message. (Fiction. 14 & up)"

[Book review of the book Brutal, by M. Harmon]. (2009, February 1). Kirkus Reviews, 77(3), 172.  Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com

Library Uses

• This would be an excellent book for a young adult book club through the library.
• Also, the library could hold a bullying awareness day in which information regarding bullying and the prevention of bullying could be shared with all patrons, children and adults, as it is a topic that affects us all.

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Module 7 - Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Summary  

 Sarah Byrnes and Eric "Moby" Calhoun have been each others only friends for many years due to their similar status of being an outcast.  Sarah Byrnes is outcast due to disfiguring burns on both her hands and her face.  Moby was outcast due to his weight.  In the book, it is there senior year, and Sarah Byrnes is in the mental ward of a hospital.  One day, she just stopped talking or reacting to anything.  Moby desperately wants to help her, so he visits her in between school and practicing for the school swim team.  As he delves deeper into her problem and it reasons, he puts himself in grave danger.  Moby has to also deal with a Mark Brittan, an extremely judgemental boy who uses Christianity as a way to condem everyone who does not share the same beliefs. 

 

Bibliography

 Crutcher, C.  (1993).  Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes.  New York, NY:  Harper Tempest.

 

My Impression

I thought that this was a very good book.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  I found Moby to be a very likeable, if sometimes too perfect, character.  I liked his loyalty to Sarah Byrnes and his determination to help her no matter what problems might arise from his endeavours.  As he was supposed to, Mark Brittan really made me angry at points.  I liked that I was able to get involved, emotionally, with the book.  Also, Elleby was a fantastic character.  I enjoyed his humor and loved his car.  While this book dealt with some serious topics, such as shame and abuse, it had enough humor to make it not be too heavy and too serious.  While reading it, there were several places where I literally laughed out loud. 

To Read or Not to Read:  Read it.  Read it.  Read it.  You won't regret it.

Professional Reviews

School Library Journal
"Gr 8 Up-- Best friends Eric (emerging from obesity) and Sarah Byrnes (horribly scarred from burns and caustically tough) save one another on many levels throughout this breathtakingly complex and harrowing story of emotional heroism and growth. Outstanding on so many levels, it speaks about abuse, loyalty, brutality, and hypocrisy, with some surprising saviors along the way. High school students everywhere, many of whom carry scars of some sort, will immediately relate." - Mary Hofmann
Hofmann, M. (2005, November).  [Review of the book Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes, by C. Crutcher].  School Library Journal, 51(11), 59.  Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/

Horn Book Magazine
"At eighteen Eric Calhoune is an overweight swimmer whose nickname is Moby, though he's not as fat as he used to be and would be even thinner were it not for his friendship with Sarah Byrnes. Eric's success on the swimming team and the weight loss that is the by-product of his strict physical regimen are so threatening to that longstanding relationship, however, that he forces himself into gluttony in order not to jeopardize it. The author has created one of his strongest female characters to date in the physically maimed Sarah Byrnes, who at the age of three was severely burned on the face and hands when her father pushed her into a wood stove. These two teenagers form a close bond based on much that they have in common. In addition to the "terminal uglies," they both have parents -- Sarah's mother and Eric's father -- who left their families, and they both have been granted a larger than normal allotment of intelligence and courage. They share a great deal of anger, too, repressed in Eric but smoldering and quick to surface in Sarah Byrnes. In their last year in high school, she has an apparent catatonic episode and is institutionalized. Eric's attempts to help his friend find her way back into the world make up the bulk of the narrative. Although the central issue of the novel is the insidious and far-reaching effects of child abuse, minor characters introduce several other topics of current interest, such as abortion and religious fundamentalism -- perhaps too superficially and a bit sensationally given the serious nature of these issues. As is usually the case in this author's novels, the book's strength lies in the characterizations. Crutcher possesses a novelist's greatest asset: an ability to create people who are real and believable and about whom the reader can care deeply."
N. V. (1993, May/June).  [Review of the book Staying fat for Sarah Byrnes, by C. Crutcher].  Horn Book Magazine, 69(3), 336.  Retrieved from http://hbook.com/.

Library Uses

• This book, along with a few others, such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Speak and Brutal, could be used in a book talk dealing with books about either outcasts or teen violence.
•  This book could also be used in a book display of good YA in order to tempt young adults to read.

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