Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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Gosh.  I never imagined that I'd get to share old stories that involved reading Joyce Carol Oates...or that I'd be characterizing a book of hers as one of this year's YA highlights.

But, here I am!

I first encountered the writing of Joyce Carol Oates in 1973 as a freshman at the University of Connecticut.  I experienced two semesters of freshman comp with a beautiful and demanding grad student named Ann Gates.  The nearly book-a-week regimen imposed by Ann took us careening through a collection of titles based on a theme she called, "The American Dream."  Included were ON THE ROAD, GATSBY, FEAR & LOATHING, LOLITA, SANCTUARY, SNOW WHITE, TROUT FISHING, and Oates' WONDERLAND.  Ann, who tried to teach us how to find the OTHER meanings in the authors' words, was frequently assisted in class by her musician-husband, David, whose specialty was turning us on to old vinyl recordings by 'Bird and 'Train, along with illuminating the latest examples of phallic imagery in what we'd been reading.

It was the end of that second semester of being in her class when, as I sat on the library floor cramming for some final or other, Ann literally came floating down the hall, her face all lit up.  She paused long enough to tell me that The New Yorker had bought her short story, "A Platonic Relationship."  It was published later that year under her own (soon to be well-known) name, Ann Beattie.  Her later-to-be musician-ex-husband, David Gates, ended up working for Newsweek and writing his own books, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist, JERNIGAN.

Anyway, thirty years past WONDERLAND, Joyce Carol Oates has discovered her true calling--young adult fiction.  BIG MOUTH & UGLY GIRL, a book I devoured excitedly in one sitting, is a masterfully written and thought-provoking gem that is sure to bring Oates a whole new generation of fans.

There's Matt (THE MOUTH):

"At the rear of the room, Matt and his friends were absorbed in the play, for which Matt was doing hurried revisions, typing away furiously on his laptop.  Anxiously he'd ask his friends 'But does this work?  Is it scary, is it funny, does it move?'  Matt Donaghy had something of a reputation at Rocky River for being being both brainy and a comic character, but secretly he was a perfectionist, too.  He'd been working on his one-act play William Wilson: A Case of Mistaken Identity longer than his friends knew, and he had hopes it would be selected to be performed at the school's Spring Arts Festival."

Those "friends" all abandon Matt in an instant after he is dragged from the classroom by detectives who have been tipped off that Matt has threatened to blow up the school.

There's Ursula (UGLY GIRL):

"Strange: how stuff that used to bother me in middle school, had the power to make me hide away and cry, didn't bother me at all now.  Since that day I woke up and knew I wasn't an ugly girl, I was Ugly Girl..."

"Lots of people I was starting to hate who I used to like a lot.  But when you like people, you can be hurt.  I'd made a few mistakes with girl friends, and one or two guys I'd thought were my buddies, and I wouldn't make these mistakes again..."

"I could see that my teachers didn't know what to make of me.  There was Ursula Riggs, who was an excellent student, a serious girl with an interest in biology and art, and there was Ugly Girl, who played sports like a Comanche and who had a sullen, sarcastic tongue.  It was Ugly Girl who was susceptible to 'moods'--these ranged from Inky Black to Fiery Red.  In a mood sometimes I'd walk out of class, yawning; or I might quit a test in the middle, just snatch up my backpack and exit.  My grades were everything from A+ to F.  In a rational frame of mind I knew I had to worry I'd screw up my SAT's and not get into a college of the caliber I could bear going to, but in the next minute I'd shrug and laugh.  Who cares?  Not Ugly Girl, warrior-woman."

Ursula is not a friend of Matt's but she's known him since fifth grade.  She also knows the truth of what Matt has actually said about blowing up the school.  BIG MOUTH & UGLY GIRL is the story of what happens when Ugly Girl indignantly steps forward to set the record straight.

Ursula informs us: "Life consists of Facts, and Facts are of two kids: Boring and Crucial.  I figured this out for myself in eighth grade.  Wish I could patent it!  A Boring Fact is virtually any fact that doesn't concern you.  Or it's just trivial, a nothing fact.  (Like the annual rainfall in, let's say, Bolivia.  Crucial to the Bolivians, but Boring to everyone else.)  I know the Crucial Facts of Ugly Girl's life are Boring Facts to others.  Yet, to Ugly Girl, they are Crucial.  There's one test of a Crucial Fact: It hurts."

Crucial Fact: BIG MOUTH AND UGLY GIRL is a must-read.  I can only hope that Ms. Oates has another YA up her sleeve.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com