Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson

Why should you read Octavian Nothing Volume 1? 
Do you remember watching The Titanic or Gladiator for the first time? How you cried and cried and cried at the end? How you found the fictional depiction of history so mesmerizing? This book, may be, one of the best books of historical fiction I have ever read, if not the BEST book I have ever read. Like many people, I appreciate a good tear-jerker, but this books made me cry tears so full of the realization of human-failure that I couldn't stop.

Imagine watching your son or daughter  (or future son/daughter) weigh and record their own excrement in order to prove misconstrued social conceptions.

In high school biology class, do you remember dissecting different deceased animals? Now imagine that as a family member being picked apart by scientists. (I am sorry about the terrible image, but imagine how that would affect you, how heartbreaking and disturbing that would be.)

M.T. Anderson deals with the earliest onset of slavery in America in a way no other author ever has. Young Octavian is the son of an African princess, Cassiopeia. They live in a mansion in 18th century Boston run by 03-01, Mr. Gitney. Mr. Gitney believe in a ranking a person's status though numbers. Mr. Gitney along with philosophers, artists, and scientists are running an experiment using Octavian and his mother to see if the African race is inferior to the European race in the Novanglian College of Lucidity.

That being said, this novel pushes young adult literature to a level of such supreme quality that those of you in the world who disregard young adult literature will be astonished after reading this book. It's at a level superior to adult novels in content and social commentary.

This book is also extremely intertextual in that (PAGING TEACHERS) it explores and describes a segment of history not touched upon by many: the earliest beginnings of the Revolutionary War. While I was reading this text, I couldn't help but think how wonderful of a teaching tool this text would be. I remember wishing in grade school that my teachers would be more creative in the class room. Using supplementary texts, such as this one would be an excellent way to make students interested in historical studies.


How does this text fit this book series? 


This novel will make readers question social traps of race and prejudice issues that remain today. While reading this novel you should question American history, and how people have felt trapped through slavery and during the Civil Rights movement with Jim Crow laws.

Octavian is literally trapped by a system that seems inescapable in more ways than one: mentally, physically, and socially.

There are numerous novels on slavery; while reading this text I was also enrolled in two African American novel courses. Because this text is written by a white author (similar to Kathryn Stockett's The Help and Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), you wonder how authors become trapped by stereotype in being accused of not being able to tell a true story of a different race. This book tears down that stereotype in evoking such feeling and sentiment, it's not even an issue.


Memorable Quotes: 

• "For strangers know more of us, and can judge of us more without reproach than ever those we love." (219) 
• "And then they imprisoned me in darkness; and though there was no color there, I was still black, and they still were white; and for that, they bound and gagged me." (p. 314)
• "May the Lord remind me of this always as I walk free upon paths, and may I thus always give thanks unto Him for the strange small gifts of gesture, of simple tasks done with requisite care and sphere of action." (p. 318) 

Cherry on Top: 


The best part of this novel is the epic final scene, which I must keep private due to spoiling the novel. I have already recommended this book to a handful of people, and now I recommend it to you. You'll want to pass this novel down to your children and grandchildren after reading.


Connecting with the text: 

Here M.T. Anderson speak at the 2010 National Book Festival. 

Click here to check out M. T. Anderson's absolutely awesome webpage! 

Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Why should you read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children?
The first reason, would be to see images like this...

As well as the completely real and spell-binding images included in this text, the storytelling capability of Ransom Riggs is wonderful. He mixes fantasy with historical fiction (WWII) to create a young adult novel so refreshing and creative, it feels like something that has never been done before! While some may say this is a middle grade novel, I'd select it more for a 9th/10th grade audience. This novel also reads extremely fast, and for me this text was one of the books that I could not put down. Instead of starting papers, clearing my DVR, holiday shopping, the list goes on... I put all these tasks aside to finish this book. My honest opinion, I LOVED it, and yes the degree of love that it has to be in all-caps.
This novel is suspenseful, terrifying in the way ghost-hunt shows scare me, yet so sincere within the relationships of the main character, Jacob, and the children of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar children.
Without giving too much away, Jacob travels through time warps to meet and interact, and possibly do more with these peculiar children. Jacob had heard of these different children (super strong, floating, fire-orb creating, etc.) through the fantastical stories of his grandfather. When Jacob grows older, he realizes there is a world out there he had no idea existed, and those he comes to care for in that world are in trouble.


How does this novel fit this reading series? 


Similar to Impossible, Jacob's "curse"/history derives from his grandfather. After failing to believe his grandfather and after witnessing his grandfather's death Jacob must decipher difficult images and what others deem to be insanity on his own. Jacob's trapped by others disbelief, his inherited skill/curse from his grandfather, as well as between choosing between his family and the children and people he feels closer to at the end of the novel.
Placing this context on real life, choosing between loved one is an awful situation to be in, but something many do every day. When you fall in love with somebody and choose to live with that person or get married, often times due to work or circumstances out of your control you may have to choose to leave your family that has loved you, behind. Jacob faces this issue.
An other for entrapment in this text surrounds the peculiar children, and their inability to leave a single day. They face their entrapment with the help of Miss Peregrine, but when murderers monsters (yes, there are monsters in this book and they are frightening!) threaten the safety of the children, they put their unsettling circumstances and risk their personal safety in order to save the lives of other peculiars.

Memorable Quotes: 

• "Inside were the photos I knew so well: the invisible boy, the levitating girl, the boulder lifter, the man with a face painted on the back of his head. They were brittle and peeling - smaller than I remembered, too - and looking at them now, as an almost adult, it struck me how blatant the faker was.... in the other a pair of freakish twins were dressed in the weirdest costumes I'd ever seen. Even my grandfather, who'd filled my head with stories of tentacle-tongued monsters, had realized images like these would give any kid bad dreams." (p.45)
• "Within five minutes I was half-asleep in the grass, smiling like a dope, wondering serenely what might be on the menu for lunch. It was if just being here had some kind of narcotic effect on me; like the loop itself was a drug - a mood enhancer and a sedative combined - and if I stayed too long, I'd never want to leave. If that were true, i though, it would explain a lot of things, like how people could live the same day over and over for decades without losing their minds. Yes, it was beautiful and life was good, but if ever day were exactly alike and if the kids really couldn't leave, as Miss Peregrine had said, then this place wasn't just a heaven but a kind of prison, too." (p. 209)
• "I'll go, but I'm not going to kiss her, I told myself. I repeated it like a mantra as she led me across the bog. Do not kiss! Do not kiss!" (p. 236) 

Cherry on Top: 
We get glimpses of the relationship between Abe (Jacob's grandfather) and one of the peculiars, Emma. This relationship later dissolves, and we see and experience a relationship between Jacob and Emma that is innocent and exuding of young love. Their relationship adds a softness to the terrible circumstances they find each other in.

Getting Connected With The Text: 

Book Trailer Video

Click Here for Ransom Riggs Web page.