Shattering Glass by Gail Giles

Simon Glass is a complete geek: greasy, doughy and clumsy, a perfectly classic computer nerd. Then Rob, a relative newcomer who vaulted to the top of the high school's popularity perch within weeks of his arrival, decides to make Simon a project. He's going to take him to the top, too.

It's pretty easy. For one, Simon is rich, so new clothes are not a problem. Two, Simon is a willing (if suspicious) co-conspirator.

Soon, Rob and his friends -- including the writerly rich-kid narrator Thaddeus R. Steward IV (aka Young) -- see their experiment with popularity and power go awry as Simon becomes the prototypical Frankenstein's monster.

A real page-turner, but full of well-trodden tropes about power, control, creation, and high school popularity.

Bibliotherapeutic value: There is a discussion of bullying and power tripping. Also, it's a lesson in looking beneath the surface. Cathartic, but not terribly deep.

Giles, Gail. Shattering Glass. New York: Simon Pulse, 2003.

ISBN: 0689858000. $7.99.

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga

Josh is a brilliant but difficult kid. His anger flashes into violence in a heartbeat. He won't even talk to his former best friend, and you know that he has done something to her about which he feels terrifically guilty.

As the story unfolds, the truth of what has happened to him is revealed: When he was only twelve years old, his married social studies teacher very carefully manipulated and seduced him. An unconventional sexual predator, Eve was caught and convicted of the crime. Now Josh is a senior, and Eve has just been released. Along with her release comes a confrontation with Rachel, the girl he has been avoiding for five years. Will Josh be able to tamp down the flood of memories that threaten to drown him?

Chilling, difficult, interesting, and at times long-winded, Boy Toy is a piercing look at the relationship between the confused child victim and adult predator. Well-written but very disturbing.


Students have been asking for this one for over a year; then I read a School Library Journal article about censorship that featured this book. The topic alone is pretty intriguing.

Bibliotherapeutic value: The tension comes from the fact that, as readers, we know exactly what is going on -- and that's a brutal reminder of how young and innocent the victim truly is. A deep look at how, for the victims of sexual abuse, even the most normal situation can become fertile ground for guilt and shame. Potently shows how sexual trauma robs its victims.

Lyga, Barry. Boy Toy. New York: Houghton, 2007.

ISBN: 978-0-618-72393-5.  $16.95.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a high school freshman, and he sees the world a little differently. As he begins his high school career, he is still getting over his best friend's suicide the year before. He feels things deeply, he sees things deeply, but he is a boy in a bubble, so sweet and childlike that he's almost not of this world -- but when he does cry, he just can't stop.

No wonder that Charlie is an outcast at school. Then, a group of unconventional seniors take him under their collective wing. Soon, he is learning about punk rock and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, finding out what it's like for his best friend, who is gay but has to keep his relationship completely secret. Charlie, too, has a secret.

A slim, fast, fantastic read, The Perks of Being a Wallflower's beauty is all in the narrator, a lost kid who sees way too much.

Teachers with struggling readers have used this one in the classroom, and I've been curious about it for a long time because of comparisons to this and A Catcher in the Rye.

Bibliotherapeutic value: The homosexuality in this book is treated with empathetic care; one the one hand, Charlie is completely accepting, giving a vision of a non-judgemental world. On the other, the culture of the school promotes sameness, making it necessary to hide what should be a pretty simple romance -- all kinds of pain is created by this situation. Then there's Charlie's shocking secret. The entire book pivots on the dysfunction that occurs when they are forbidden to express what should be expressed. A deep, brilliant little book.

Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. New York: MTV, 1999. 


ISBN 0-671-02734-4. $12.