Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Five Flavors of Dumb, by Antony John

Piper is a senior in high school - quiet, keeps to herself, captain of the chess team, gets good grades, the usual stuff expected from a "good girl" character in teen novels, but Piper's behavior is due in large part to her feeling isolated from her fellow students because she is deaf.  With hearing aids she can hear some things, but her hearing is not perfect, especially in crowds or when she can't also lip-read.  Her best friend, also deaf, has moved away, Piper's younger brother, a freshman, seems embarrassed by her desire for him to sign with her, and her parents have raided the college fund her deaf grandparents set up especially for Piper to attend a college for hearing impaired students - to pay for cochlear implants so her baby sister can hear and not be disabled like Piper.  She's frustrated with being different and that her parents, her dad in particular, seem to see her as broken.  In a moment of very frustrated, very un-Piper-like behavior, she challenges the lead singer of her school's Teen Battle of the Bands winner - she'll become their manager and get the band, named Dumb, a paying gig within 30 days. 

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks by E. Lockhart

Frankie has her growth spurt and discovers leave-in conditioner the summer after her freshman year in high school, and when she gets back to school, boys seem to notice.  In particular one boy, Matthew, whom Frankie begins to date.  But Matthew and his friends are part of a secret society, the Basset Hounds, and the society doesn't let in girls.  Frankie, frustrated at being underestimated, impersonates the Basset's leader, organizing increasingly daring and successful pranks on campus, but pulling off brilliant pranks while letting someone else gets the credit rankles, and ultimately she has to come clean.  There are elements of romance, but ultimately this story is about Frankie and her growing realization of how being female effects how others see and treat her.  It doesn't have a "happy ending" in that Frankie does not end up with the boy of her dreams, but she does recognize her own self-confidence, worth and sense of power.