The Running Dream (Draanen)

                                                           

Draanen, Wendelin Vann. The Running Dream. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2001. ISBN 9780375896798

Sixteen year old Jessica is a runner. Running makes her feel alive. She first fell in love with running in third grade and never once waivered in her fanaticism for the sport.  After a record breaking track meet, Jessica’s school bus is in an accident her leg is amputated. Jessica must now learn to carefully maneuver through a world that was once so familiar. Life’s ordinary routine becomes a monumental task and going to school is suddenly terrifying.  Jessica no longer feels whole and worries that others only see what she is missing. With this new perspective, Jessica becomes friends with Rosa, a girl in her class with Cerebral Palsy, who changes her life. With the help of family and friends, and especially Rosa, Jessica slowly learns to reclaim her self-confidence, purpose, and love of running.

Critical Analysis

Jessica is a strong, independent female character whom faces and overcomes many obstacles through the course of the book. Draanen has presented a realistic look at the grieving process for Jessica’s loss of her leg and track dreams and aspirations. When Jessica initially loses her leg she feels as if her world is crashing down around her, and turns to unhealthy coping mechanisms.

With time Jessica comes to accept the reality that her leg is gone and begins to refocus her life. She learns to climb stairs and eventually returns to school. She is surprised to realize that many students are enthusiastic upon her return and acknowledge her excitedly. Other students, however, seem to ignore her or appear uncomfortable around her. When Jessica is told to sit in the back of the room next to Rosa, a student with cerebral palsy, Jessica suddenly feels guilty. Just as students were ignoring her, she too had once ignored Rosa. Draanen is careful to give Rosa’s character a personality that helps the reader see her beyond her disability. Rosa is insightful, smart, and witty with her own aspirations. A strong friendship develops between Rosa and Jessica as Rosa tutors Jessica in math. Jessica’s guilt fades and she comes to realize that Rosa, like her, is a girl who wants others to see them for more than their disabilities.

Draanen provides incredible detail that helps the reader understand Jessica’s journey from her swollen, scarred “stump” to decompression socks, and the incredible amount of work that goes into creating a useful prosthetic. When Jessica finally gets her prosthetic leg, she must deal with the accompanying reactions to the leg including the, “guys being wowed and the girls being revolted.” However, this struggle does not take away from Jessica’s joy at being able to once again walk. Although Jessica’s life seems to be getting easier, she still faces struggles both unique to her situation and universal to teenagers. Jessica worries about the cost of her medical bills, fears that no boy will ever like her, and worries that her leg is the reason no boy has asked her to prom. At the same time, she worries about making good grades and fights for increased independence from her parents.

Eventually, Jessica feels freed with a running leg. As she builds up strength and endurance, Jessica decides to give a gift back to her friend Rosa by pushing her wheelchair in a ten mile race. “Team Rosa” consists of Rosa, Jessica, and several friends who participate in the ten mile race with the goal of bringing awareness to individuals, not disabilities. By the end of the book Jessica too seems to have overcome her fears of being different and freely changes from her walking prosthetic to her running prosthetic in public. She is now used to the rhythm and sound of her new running, “whing, woosh, wing, woosh” and has an optimistic outlook on life.

Awards and Review Excerpts

Schneider Family Book Awards

YASLA Best Fiction For Young Adults

Booklist: “readers will truly feel what it’s like to walk (or run) a mile (or 10) in Jessica’s shoes”

Publisher’s Weekly: “Van Draanen sensitively conveys Jessica's struggles”

School Library Journal: “Readers will cheer for Jessica's recovery and be reminded to recognize people for their strengths and not overlook them because of their disabilities.”

Connections

Read other stories where teenage characters face obstacles and deal with their own disabilites.

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. ISBN 9780316013697

Draper, Susan M. Out of My Mind. ISBN 141697170X

Hershey, Mary. The One Where the Kid Nearly Jumps to His Death and Lands in California.

ISBN 1595141502

Zimmer, Tracie Vaughn. Reaching for Sun. ISBN 9781599900377

Read other books by Wendelin Van Draanen.

Draanen, Wendelin Vann. Flipped. ISBN 9780375825446

Draanen, Wendelin Vann. Runaway. ISBN 9780307975973

Draanen, Wendelin Vann. Swear to Howdy. ISBN 9780440419433

Habibi (Nye)

                                             

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Habibi. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1997. ISBN 0689801491

On the verge of entering high school, Liyana feels that everything is just as it should be. She knows the ins and outs of her neighborhood, loves spending time with her grandmother, Peachy Helen, and has just experienced her first kiss. Then her parents announce the biggest change of Liyana’s life. Her family is moving away from everything that Liyana has ever known. They will be leaving her mom’s hometown of St. Louis, Missouri to live just outside of her dad’s hometown of Jerusalem. Once there, she is overwhelmed by her father’s large Arab family and the many lingual and cultural differences she encounters. She is shocked with the reality of the ongoing violence between Jews and Arabs in the city. With time, however, Liyana begins to appreciate the rich history and culture of Jerusalem and begins to approach life with familiarity and hope.

Critical Analysis

Habibi is a culturally rich novel that addresses the unique cultural experience of a teenage girl born to an Israeli father and an American mother as she transitions from life in the United States to life in Israel, or as her father “Poppy” still refers to his homeland, Palestine. Liyana knows only her father’s stories of his homeland and family when they take off on their journey.

The reader learns along with Liyana many of the cultural differences between the United States and Israel. Her friends back home had names like Jackson and Claire, but her friends at school in Jerusalem had names like Sylvie and Atom. In the United States, only her father called her “habibi” and her mother and grandmother called her precious, but in Israel many members of her Arab family used the term of endearment “habibi” or “habibti”. Liyana is also conflicted when she learns of many of the conservative expectations such as not wearing “inappropriate” shorts or wearing the friendship ring given to her by her American best-friend because the ring is seen as a distraction. It is also common for her older uncles to wear “kaffiyehs” on their heads and her older aunts to wrap their heads in long scarves.

Once in Jerusalem, Liyana learns more about the cultural differences and conflicts within the city itself. Most everyone within the city walls is bilingual and Liyana must attend classes with kindergarten students to learn Arabic. Liyana and her family explore the Arab and Armenian areas of the city but avoid the Jewish sections. The most difficult part for Liyana is witnessing instances of hate between Arabs and Jews.

However new and difficult, life in Jerusalem is also wonderful. Liyana learns the shared experiences between all who live in the old city. Nye uses poetic language, sprinkled with Arabic words, to describe the sights, sounds, and smells of the area as Liyana experiences and falls in love with the places, people, and things of Israel. She experiences the Dead Sea, “prickly with salt”, tastes a wide array of Arabic desserts including “katayef”, learns from her grandmother “Sitti” who tells stories of angels, and most of all falls for a Jewish boy named Omer who has olive skin the color of her own and “smell[s] of the sun.” As Liyana and Omer grow closer, they learn similarities and differences between the Arab and Jewish cultures, such as traditions for mourning. Nye’s beautiful descriptions add depth to the story help the reader experience Liyana’s Jerusalem. In the end, both the reader and Liyana will come to appreciate and love her new home and hold onto hope for a true peace in Jerusalem.

Awards and Review Excerpts

ALA Notable Children’s Books 1998

Jane Addams Book Awards 1998

Booklist: “steeped in detail about the place and cultures”

Kirkus Reviews: “unique, short-story-like chapters and poetic language”

Publisher’s Weekly: “Nye's climactic ending will leave readers pondering, long after the last page is turned”

School Library Journal: “readers will be engaged by the characters, the romance, and the foreshadowed danger”

Connections

Pair this novel with poetry written by Naomi Shihab Nye.

Nye, Naomi Shihab. A Maze Me: Poems for Girls. ISBN 9780060581893

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Fuel.  ISBN 9781880238639

Nye, Naomi Shihab. Honeybee: Poems & Short Prose. ISBN 9780060853907

Read a novel about two teenage girls working together to leave Ethiopia and reach Sudan despite their religious differences that have historically brought hate.

Kurtz, Jane. The Storyteller’s Beads. ISBN 9780152010744

In Our Mothers’ House (Polacco)

                                                                         

Polacco, Patricia. In Our Mothers’ House. New York: Philomel Books, 2009. ISBN 9780399250767

Patricia Polacco’s In Our Mothers’ House narrates the story of a girl and her family with illustrated pages and vivid descriptions portraying the distinct personalities of both her mothers, Marmee and Meema, and of her younger siblings, Will and Millie. She shares many of the happy memories with her parents and siblings and later their experiences visiting home again as adults with children of their own.

Critical Analysis

Polacco has created an ideal family in her picture book, In Our Mothers’ House. Memories are shared by the narrator, including the adoption of each of her younger siblings and the joy their arrival brought. Her siblings and mothers are described so that readers feel they can know each character, including Marmee the organized list maker and Meema the sewer and cooker. Picturesque scenes from the family are reminisced upon including the family working together to make gnocchi, build a tree house, and host their annual block party. Beautiful imagery describes the scenes such as the dinner parties where the family “never measured words” or the time when their mothers wore dresses for the first time and “floated down [the stairs] like shimmering swans.” Even difficult times, such as when the family came down with the flu are described as joyful memories when “they touched my face and wiped away my tears” and the illustrations show family wreathed in smiles while cuddled in bed.

Mrs. Lockner, the disapproving neighbor, is the only negativity that seeps its way into the pages. Mrs. Locker glares at the family when they trick-or-treat, won’t let her children sleep over, and storms over to the family during a block party and announces “I don’t appreciate what you two are!” Many younger audiences will not understand why Mrs. Lockner is so angry. The characters never directly address the problem, beyond Meema saying that Mrs. Lockner “is full of fear” and “doesn’t understand us.” Adults sharing this book would find this an apt opportunity for discussion.

In Our Mothers’ House is filled with exuberant, detailed illustrations that demonstrate the family’s love for each other inside of their full, cozy home. The illustrations are exuberant in their joy, perhaps to the extreme, except for the dampening frown of the family’s neighbor, Mrs. Lockner. The pictures display the diversity of the family members, from the chocolate brown skin, and tight, curly hair of the narrator, to the peachy skin and vibrant orange hair of the youngest child. During the block party, the diversity of the neighborhood is celebrated with images of sushi brought by the Yamagakis and hummus brought by the Abdullas. The illustrations beautifully capture the mothers as they age gracefully throughout the book, displaying their softened bodies and creased faces.

The book ends with the mothers passing way, but their memories being celebrated by their children and their own families in the same house once shared together.

Review Excerpts

Booklist: “this portrait of a loving family celebrates differences”

School Library Journal: “This gem of a book illustrates how love makes a family, even if it's not a traditional one.”

Connections

Read some of the other books by Patricia Polacco.

Polacco, Patricia. Chicken Sunday. ISBN 9780698116153

Polacco, Patricia. Babushka’s Doll. ISBN 9780689802553

Polacco, Patricia. Thank you, Mr. Falker. ISBN 9780399257629

Polacco, Patricia. The Keeping Quilt. ISBN 9780153052125

Read other books that celebrate non-traditional families.

Downey, Roma. Love Is a Family. ISBN 9780060393748

Newman, Leslea. Mommy, Momma, and Me. ISBN 9781582462639

Richardson, Justin. And Tango Makes Three. ISBN 9780689878459

Simon, Norma. All Families are Special. ISBN 9780807521755