COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL SELECTION

1. COMING-OF-AGE NOVEL SELECTION

2. COMING-OF-AGE NOVELS What does it take to come of age?… to grow up? These stories show how young people are shaped by their experiences and how they create new identities as they move into adulthood. The main character (protagonist) is a child or young adult. The reader sees the protagonist move from youth to maturity. The protagonist is at a critical point in her life. She struggles to define her identity. Sometimes the protagonist faces personal, societal and cultural obstacles along the way. The story presents the difficult lesson(s) the protagonist has to learn, through challenging experiences, on his journey to maturity and independence. The protagonist learns, through his experiences, what works and what doesn’t, what’s acceptable and what is not. Toward the end of the story, the protagonist has come up with a set of new beliefs and behaviors. The character has grown emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, etc. The character has moved from innocence to experience, from dependence to independence.

3. Thirteen-year-old Katie moved to a small Missouri town two years ago, after the death of her mother. She now lives with her stern, inaccessible father and his new wife, who means well but who cannot mend the tear in Katie's heart. Lonely and isolated by her status as the "smart kid" at school, Katie forges alliances when and where she can. When Katie tries to move up in her social world, she ends up losing her closest friend and learns some very hardlessons about herself. True to FormAuthor: Elizabeth Berg

4. This is the story of first love, featuring 13 year old Katie. When her father, a widowed army colonel, moves to another town, Katie longs to fit in. Katie meets people who are considered misfits. Also, she meets Jimmy, 23, a garage attendant, and she falls in love with him. However, Jimmy is married and has a family. Katie has decisions to make. This story is funny at times and heartbreaking at other times.

5. 16 year old Dennis Doyle discovers that he has a natural talent; he can beat anyone at cards. He moves from living-room games with his tough buddies to the $1,000 tables at the casinos. On his road to success, he gives away his lawn-mowing business and abandons his good relationships with his divorced mom, his best friend, his girl friend and a local priest. He works hard to become better at the game. He becomes rich. However, is it worth it? The question of whether Dennis is mature enough to overcome his addiction becomes the focus of this novel.

6. When her mother is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Ginny is sent away to England to live with Hugh, the father she hardly knows. Hugh is part of a living history research project, which means he lives on an Iron Age farm without any modern conveniences. Is she strong enough to survive this way of life not knowing what is happening to her mother??

7. Gene Forrester remembers a World War II year in prep school and the unexpected events of that year. The main action of the novel centers on Gene’s relationship with Finny, who is in most ways his physical, emotional, and intellectual opposite. At first, the two boys have a rather carefree friendship. This ends when Gene (perhaps envious of Finny) intentionally jolts the limb of a tree on which Finny is standing. His friend falls, crippling himself for life and ending his athletic career. After this event, the rest of the novel deals with Gene’s attempts to come to terms with his guilt. Finny does not suspect Gene, so Gene must deal with himself in moral isolation.

8. Shakespeare Bats Cleanup At 14, Kevin Boland is a straight-talking MVP first baseman who can’t tell a ballad from a salad. However when he is diagnosed with mono and is forced to spend months at home recuperating, Kevin secretly borrows his father’s poetry book and starts writing, just to pass the time. Inside the book, Kevin discovers more than haiku and sonnets. He gains insight – sometimes humorous, sometimes painful – as he records his candid observations on junior-high romance, daydreams of baseball stardom, and sorrow over the recent death of his mother.

9. At 17, Lucille Odom, resident of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, finds herself in the midst of an unexpected domestic crisis. Her mother has left the family to “start a second life.” Her father begins an obsessive campaign to find and reclaim his wife of 27 years. Also, Lucille’s beautiful, independent older sister returns home unexpectedly with a new Yankee husband and a bigger surprise in store. Throughout all of these experiences, Lucille feels that she has to take on the role of the family organizer and stabilizer. Lucille emerges as a woman rich in wisdom, rich in humor, and rich in love. Author: Josephine Humphreys

10. Fourteen year old Pamela Collins is struggling to come to terms with her mother’s death. The title refers to the canyon where Pamela, the narrator, and her mother took frequent walks - and where her mother took her own life. Pamela struggles with complicated emotions. As she copes with her mother’s death, adolescence (the changes in her body), her friendships, her rapport with boys, she feels especially alone. This story ends on a hopeful note. Author: Katherine Holubitsky

11. The 12 year old narrator Trisha Dalton grows up in the late 1960s in a violent family in Salem, Massachusetts. Both of her parents are alcoholics and her father has a gambling addiction, as well. Her household is chaotic. Also, the house is said to be haunted by one of her ancestors. Tricia adopts an expression her grandmother used to describe people who look to others to solve their problems, instead of taking responsibility for their own actions - dog people. She calls her family this. This touching and beautiful story shows a child’s struggle into adulthood in the face of a tragic family situation.

12. This story concentrates on the childhood and adolescent years of James “Sandy” Rogers, a sensitive and highly intelligent black boy growing up in small Stanton, Kansas. He comes of age in this small-town in the years prior to and including World War I. His grandmother, known to the community as Aunt Hager, is the center of his life. She takes care of him while his mother works. Later, Aunt Hager becomes Sandy’s sole guardian after his mother leaves to join her husband in Detroit and Harriett, the last daughter to remain at home, runs away with the carnival. Sandy is a young child when the novel opens; at the novel’s close, he is sixteen years old and determined to continue his education despite the onset of the war and the economic hardships his family suffers. In the beginning, Sandy is the perceptive observer of what is going on around him in Stanton. Eventually, as he grows up and begins to move within the larger community, he has his own experiences with maturation, sexuality, and family and race relations on which to reflect.

13. In this story, Roxanne Milner grows from a talented 9 year old to a mature adult of 38. Roxanne grows up in a small town in Texas. In her travels from girlhood to motherhood, you see her at the age of 12, receiving pie-making lessons from her mother. The lessons continue until her own daughter is ready for instructions. Her father runs a small shop selling bras and corsets, a source of embarrassment to the family. When she is 15, her mother becomes pregnant. She is mortified and jealous of this. Also, she struggles with her father’s sudden death and her cousin’s return from Vietnam as a drug-addicted amputee. This is an engaging story about a girl growing up in small-town America.

14. Young Ailin enjoys a privileged childhood, but as a girl, she is denied what she wants most: a voice in her future. Her grandmother has decided it’s time she has her feet bound, to make her more attractive to a future husband. In China in 1911, all girls in good families follow this ancient practice, which is also extremely painful. When she sees the sad state of her sisters’ feet, she is stunned She refuses to follow this torturous tradition. As she enters adolescence, her family, shamed by her decision, no longer supports her. Yet she is determined to forge her own destiny. This is a passionate portrayal of a young girl’s coming of age in a repressive, challenging time. Author: Lensey Namioka

15. Living a reclusive and isolated existence with her mentally retarded mother and her grandmother in a ramshackle cottage on Newfoundland's outer banks, teenager Kit Pitman finds her life turned upside down by the death of her grandmother. Kit and her childlike mother are left vulnerable to life’s harsh realities and unexpected dangers that threaten to break them in two.

16. Macon Dead, Jr., called Milkman, grows up when he discovers his connection with his ancestors, especially the founder of his family, his great- grandfather, Solomon. At first, Milkman is spoiled, self-centered, confused, and immature, affected greatly by the tense atmosphere of his unhappy home and family. Milkman’s family is ruled by his domineering and unsympathetic father, who is the richest black man in town, but has no interest in his past and his family heritage. However with the help of his aunt, Milkman manages to complete his journey of cultural, historical, and personal discovery with satisfaction even though it puts his life in jeopardy at the conclusion of the novel.

17. Fifteen year old Billie Weinstein has just started her sophomore year in high school, found a boyfriend, and is best friends with Tiffany, the sleazy new girl in school. Billie is the younger daughter of a surgeon father and teacher mother. Her older sister Cassie is a freshman at Cornell and has begun to exhibit disturbing self-destructive behavior. Right before Christmas and finals week, Billie and her father are called to Cornell to take Cassie home. She is a shocking sight at 95 pounds. Once home the situation only worsens and Cassie is put in a clinic. It is now that Billie finally sees the pattern of her family's life; her loving but controlling father and kind but too passive mother. And as Billie's father starts working on her and her grades and college tests, she begins to build her own character and strength, hopefully to cope better than her sister.

18. SUMMER OF MY GERMAN SOLDIER Patty Bergen is a lovable yet vulnerable twelve-year-old girl living in a small Arkansas town during World War II. She lives with parents who favor her sister, Sharon, and find fault with her. Although she is Jewish, Patty opens her heart to a German POW imprisoned in her town. Patty hides him in a garage apartment behind her parents’ house. As her relationship with Anton deepens, Patty risks losing her family and friends, and possibly even her freedom.

19. Little Women chronicles the joys and sorrows of the four March sisters as they grow into young ladies in nineteenth-century New England. With their father at the Civil War battlefront and their mother working to support the family, the girls resolve to be “good” little women by the time their father returns. The oldest, Meg, is determined to enjoy her work more and fret less about her looks. The tomboy, Jo, pledges to better control her temper, upgrade her writing abilities and develop feminine qualities. Amy desires to be less selfish and less vain. Beth prays to overcome her fear of people. The girls labor for the next year to acquire these qualities, through their dreams, plays, pranks, letters, illnesses, and court- ships, with much success and occasional failure.

20. WHALE TALK Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students. Together they fight for dignity. They seek true acceptance.

21. Grandpa lets 15 year old Webber practice driving on an empty country road. Webber wakes up in a hospital, his leg shattered and his future as a runner in doubt. He can’t remember anything about that day. Later he learns that the car hit a little girl and she is in a coma. Grandpa wants to take the blame. How can Webber forget that “he was driving.” Does he live in guilt or tell the truth? This is thought-provoking story.

22. To find other novels, from your school computer, go to: START ….. PROGRAMS … CHEROKEE MEDIA CENTER CATALOG In the SUBJECT space, type: coming of age Fiction books are arranged in the media center alphabetically by the author’s last name.

23. Type in search term and click on Search.

24. Note total and call numbers. Double click on selection to get a summary.

25. Note summary of book.

26. FROM THE MEDIA CENTER WEB PAGE: To find other novels, go to the Cherokee Media Center web site – www.lrhsd.org/chmediaClick on: Book and Audiovisual Catalog. In the SUBJECT space, type: coming of age

27. Click on: Book and Audiovisual Catalog

28. Type in term(s) and click on “Search.”

29. Note library locations. No location means North Media Center.

30. Note that this book is in both media centers. Click on Details to get a summary of the book.

31. Note summary of book.

32. ENJOY MAKING YOUR SELECTION! Update by Linda Dennis -- 2007