Title: The List
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-16917-2
Dewey Decimal Number: FIC VIV
Reading range: grades 9-12
Booktalk: High school is full of familiar fall rituals--back-to-school clothes shopping, school picture day, and all of the events that lead up to homecoming: rallies, games, parades, and dances. At Mount Washington High School, there is also . . . THE LIST. The infamous list is posted every September, on every bulletin board and locker in school. No one knows who creates the list, and not everyone makes the list--only the ugliest and prettiest girl in each grade. Every year, a new list appears just before Homecoming. The list remakes these girls in an instant--status for some, notoriety for others, and sadly, anxiety for all. Told in alternating chapters that follow the stories of these eight girls, The List examines our obsession with physical appearance, especially that of teen girls, in eight vignettes that are frighteningly lifelike and that paint a raw picture of teen girls’ modern lives.
Ways the book can be used in lessons, with standards, or in the classroom, or other reasons you connected with the book:
A student at one of my libraries is always asking me for books that are "deep" and that "deal with real teen issues." I have made a few suggestions to her--Go Ask Alice and Speak to get her started--but have been looking for something more contemporary. I found, read, and recommended The List. This book has the grittiness that I know the particular student is looking for, and after putting it down, my primary complaint is that it wasn't long enough. The characters were so realistically portrayed that I wanted more. Telling the stories of eight protagonists in a 332 page book is an ambitious task, and I wish Vivian had given herself more room to expand. This book, as always, could be used in a library or classroom lending library setting and would make a great independent reading book, especially for girls. Language Arts classrooms could use excerpts from the book to look at characterization, point of view, and plot elements as well as the sequence and pacing of a story.
Common Core standards:
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Author: Siobhan Vivian
Copyright: 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-16917-2
Dewey Decimal Number: FIC VIV
Reading range: grades 9-12
Booktalk: High school is full of familiar fall rituals--back-to-school clothes shopping, school picture day, and all of the events that lead up to homecoming: rallies, games, parades, and dances. At Mount Washington High School, there is also . . . THE LIST. The infamous list is posted every September, on every bulletin board and locker in school. No one knows who creates the list, and not everyone makes the list--only the ugliest and prettiest girl in each grade. Every year, a new list appears just before Homecoming. The list remakes these girls in an instant--status for some, notoriety for others, and sadly, anxiety for all. Told in alternating chapters that follow the stories of these eight girls, The List examines our obsession with physical appearance, especially that of teen girls, in eight vignettes that are frighteningly lifelike and that paint a raw picture of teen girls’ modern lives.
Ways the book can be used in lessons, with standards, or in the classroom, or other reasons you connected with the book:
A student at one of my libraries is always asking me for books that are "deep" and that "deal with real teen issues." I have made a few suggestions to her--Go Ask Alice and Speak to get her started--but have been looking for something more contemporary. I found, read, and recommended The List. This book has the grittiness that I know the particular student is looking for, and after putting it down, my primary complaint is that it wasn't long enough. The characters were so realistically portrayed that I wanted more. Telling the stories of eight protagonists in a 332 page book is an ambitious task, and I wish Vivian had given herself more room to expand. This book, as always, could be used in a library or classroom lending library setting and would make a great independent reading book, especially for girls. Language Arts classrooms could use excerpts from the book to look at characterization, point of view, and plot elements as well as the sequence and pacing of a story.
Common Core standards:
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.