Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell

Bibliographic Information: Bushnell, Candace. Summer in the City. Balzer & Bray 2011.  ISBN 9780061728938
Genre: Chick-Lit
Reading Level: Grades 8-12
Curriculum ties: None
Awards: None
Note: A prequel to Candace Bushnell’s The Carrie Diaries (2010).

Reader’s Annotation: Follow a young Carrie Bradshaw in New York City as she works towards being a famous writer.

Plot Summary: Picking up right where the Carrie Diaries left off, seventeen year old Carrie Bradshaw is living in one of the most fashionable cities in the world, New York. It is the Summer before she goes off to college, she is thinking Brown university, and is taking a writing course to keep her focused on her future career in journalism. Carrie has been living a somewhat nomadic lifestyle, crashing with friends wherever she can until she finally settles on moving in with her fashionista friend Samantha who’s main goals are fashion, fortune and fame. Carrie’s love interest is a thirty something playwright named Bernard who thinks doesn’t know Carrie’s real age. This is the Summer of discovery for Carrie. She becomes focused on writing, confident in her self and is having the time of her life with all her good friends living it up in the big apple.

Critical Evaluation: What I like about this book is how the author portrayed Carrie as a very confident and strong female role. Taking direction towards making her life long dreams of being a writer by actively seeking mentorship and education. I think her determination sets a good example for young teen women today. What I was a little leery about was the sexual, scandalous , and saucy escapades involving alcohol and men way out of their age range. This was more reminiscent of the adult version of Sex in the City but just at a younger time in their lives. I like how the author is giving readers more insight into how the group came to be before we saw them on television. What was cute was the inserts and guides to New York life told from the perspective of each girl, I thought they captured each personality very well.

Booktalking Ideas:
Discuss the relationship between the girls. Do you see any clues to their adult selves?
In this novel, Carrie loses her virginity,. Do you think seventeen is too young to be having sex?
What clues to Carrie’s adult self are developing during this “coming of age” period in her life?

Challenge Issues/ Defense:
Challenge Issues: Sex, Alcohol
Challenge defense ideas:
Discussing how Carrie lost her virginity may deter girls who were thinking of having sex or at least open a discussion.
Why was this book included?: For older teens, this book is a great account of teenage life in New York. Also for fans of Sex and the City, it is a fun read.
Author Information: Bushnell (b. Dec. 1, 1958) grew up in Glastonbury, Ct, and moved to New York City at age 19. She attended Rice University and New York University, and began her professional career at 19 when she wrote a children’s book for Simon & Schuster. Throughout her twenties, Bushnell developed her trademark style as a freelancer, writing darkly humorous pieces about women, relationships and dating for Mademoiselle, Self Magazine, and Esquire. In 1990, she wrote a column that would become a precursor for Sex and the City, called The Human Cartoon, a fictional serial published in Hamptons Magazine.
She began writing for the New York Observer in 1993; in November of 1994 she created the column Sex and the City, which ran in the New York Observer for two years. The column was bought as a book in 1995, and sold to HBO as a series in 1996. Bushnell hosted a radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio, called Sex, Success, and Sensibility, which aired from October 2006 to October 2008. She wrote and created a web series, The Broadroom, starring Jennie Garth, which launched in September 2009. In April 2010 she released The Carrie Diaries, the prequel to Sex and the City. The second book in this series is called Summer and the City and will be in bookstores in April 2011. She is currently at work on The Two Mrs. Stones, which will be in bookstores in April 2012.
Through her books and television series, Bushnell’s work has influenced and defined two generations of women. She is the winner of the 2006 Matrix Award for books (other winners include Joan Didion and Amy Tan), and a recipient of the Albert Einstein Spirit of Achievement Award. In 2002, she married NYC Ballet Principal Dancer Charles Askegard. She currently resides in Manhattan.
(Author information obtained from author website. Retrieved from:http://www.candacebushnell.com/bio.html).

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Bibliographic Information: Cohen, Rachel and Levithan, David. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Knopf : Distributed by Random House, 2006. ISBN 9780375835315
Genre: Teen Romance, Comedy, Coming of age, Adapted into a movie.
Reading Level: Grades 10-12.
Curriculum ties: Music, New York, Divorced Parents
Awards: Top 10 Youth Romances 2006, YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2007,
YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers 2007, Young Adults’ Choices 2008, Cybil Award 2006 Winner Young Adult Fiction United States, Silver Inky, 2007.
Notes: Screenplay of Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist released in 2008.

Reader’s Annotation: Rocker and high school student Nick O’Leary, member of a rock band, asks Norah, a girl he just met, to pretend to be his girlfriend in an attempt to avoid his first love who just broke up with him.

Plot Summary: Nick and Norah have more in common than they know. Nick plays in a rock band an just got out of a bad relationship. Norah is dating an aspiring musician who she begins to discover is just using her to get his CD produced by her famous dad. After a show in a crowded bar in, they are brought together when Nick asks Norah if she would be his girlfriend for the next five minutes, attempting to avoid the shame of being alone when he spots his ex-girlfriend Tris (a girl that Norah knows from school) approaching him with her new boyfriend. They share witty banter, sarcastic comments and insights about dealing with teenage angst. Upon discovery of their mutual adoration for an obscure underground band “Where’s Fluffy?” and begin a wild goose chase around when they hear the band is playing a secret show that night in Manhattan.

Critical Evaluation:  Since music is an important part of both Nick and Norah’s lives, the author uses specific songs as conversations between the two young lovers when they do not know how or if they should let the other know that they are thinking. The obstacles and issues they overcame during their search for “Where’s Fluffy?” is symbolic of their compatibility. The two experience all of the emotionally intense problems that a couple in a longer term relationship find challenging including arguments that end in sincere apologies, discussing future plans like college and careers, spirituality and making connections on a deeper level beyond superficial traits. It is also refreshing that the authors chose to characterize the two main characters as “straight edge” teens meaning that they do not drink or smoke but they do use a lot of profanity to better get their points across. Readers will associate with their eccentricities but also fall in love with the innocence of this new relationship.

Booktalking Ideas:
Music plays such an important role in this story. Do you have a favorite song or soundtrack that reflects your life?
2)Discuss the consequences of Norah putting her life and future on hold for Tai.
3) Which of the characters were you most able to relate to and why?
4) Nick and Norah jumped into their relationship instantly after separating from their significant other. Is this a good way to begin a relationship? Do you think it will last?

Challenge Issues/ Defense:
Challenge Issues: Profanity, Sexual explicitness, Homosexuality 

Challenge defense ideas:
• Nov 24, 2008-Johanna review on goodreads.com
This is one of those books I would have devoured in high school – short, sweet, with characters that reminded me of my friends or people I would want to be friends with. A lot of the reviewers have complained about the copious use of the F-bomb, but that’s how my friends and I talked (and continue to talk …). I give this book kudos for not toning it down, as well as the inclusion of queer characters without tokenizing or sermonizing.

Quite frankly, even with the language and sex, I’d rather teen girls be reading this than the Twilight series – stronger female lead, healthier relationships.(less)

“the one sex scene is more comic than erotic” – Patrick’s review from goodreads.com
David Levithan does not write for a specific age group, instead, he writes about the experience and feelings associated with it. He says that he uses profanity to capture the raw emotion of the situations he writes about. – Personal interview at ALA Midwinter conference (2011).

Why was this book included?: It is a great romantic story that also appeals to guys.

Author Information: Rachel Cohn is the author of the highly regarded young-adult novel Gingerbread and its sequel, Shrimp, among other works. Cohn, who grew up near Washington, DC, knew that she wanted to become an author at an early age. As she stated on her home page, “from the time I learned how to read and write I was always trying to create stories. I grew up surrounded by books and by family who were educators—the desire and encouragement to write came readily in my household.” After graduating from Barnard College, Cohn held a number of jobs before turning to writing fiction, publishing her debut work in 2002.
(Author biography by Jrank.org. Retrieved from: http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1655/Cohn-Rachel-1968.html)
David Levithan has written several novels for teens and young adults, as well as novelizations of movies and television-show tie-ins. Several of his novels actually began as short stories written as Valentine’s Day gifts for friends, a tradition he began many years ago; his novels Boy Meets Boy, The Realm of Possibility, and Are We There Yet? all got their start this way. Along with his work as a writer, Levithan works as editorial director and executive editor at Scholastic, where his responsibilities include editing the entire Push imprint. A line of books focusing on new voices and new authors in young-adult fiction, Push led to Levithan’s editorship of the anthology You Are Here, This Is Now:
(Author biography by Jrank.org. Retrieved from: http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2010/Levithan-David-1972.html)