Bibliography:
Kantor, Melissa. 2007. The Breakup Bible. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN: 9780786809622
Discussion:
Susan and Brandy met when they both worked at the same branch of the public library. In addition to sharing responsibilities for planning teen programs, they discovered a shared love of teen books. They both contributed to their library’s teen book blog, and once had an adventure where they traveled to Dallas and were almost the only people who were in the audience to see Markus Zusak. Since then, they have both moved on to other jobs, Brandy as a middle school teacher, and Susan as an academic librarian, but their friendship and love of teen literature remains.
Susan: Over the summer, Brandy and I decided to read the same book and then blog jointly about it here. The book we chose was The Breakup Bible.
Susan: Thanks for suggesting we read The Breakup Bible by Melissa Kantor. I really enjoyed it, and might not have read it otherwise. I want to say something about how relateable the whole story is, that everyone goes through this in their lives, where they are sure they are madly in love with someone, and that person leaves them for someone else. I was thinking that it is so relateable, that it kind of gives the author an out, in the sense that she has to do less work with character development because she already has the reader hooked by the details of the break up, grieving process, and so on.
But Kantor does have some character development and growth and combines it with the newspaper/journalism angle to make it more than just fluff. I thought the whole thing with race relations, white teens acting and dressing black, black teens being excluded from honors and AP classes was very current and topical, and maybe someone who picked up the book for the romantic part of it would then be led to think about the other.
Brandy: I think you’re right…the story IS relatable, and of course that sucks you in because you want to know if they’ll get back together and if not, how is she going to move on? I think you’re right about the character development…just saying “I was dumped by my boyfriend” automatically makes you empathize with Jennifer and want her to be happy. Of course, I think if Jennifer didn’t evolve after that point, you would lose patience with her and maybe even start to see why Max dumped her, and I do think she did become a character worth caring about, regardless of the dumping, but I agree with you that having her get dumped in the first few pages makes you form an attachment to her more quickly.
The race issue was definitely interesting (and there was also the whole dad leaving mom for another man issue as well) but I’m not sure I agreed with what the author was trying to say about race. On the one hand, I definitely agree that it’s a problem in any school if students are segregated into (or out of) classes according to race, but it seemed the book was saying that the Honors issue had more to do with income level (still not okay!) than race. Weren’t the majority of the white students rich and the poorer students were mostly minorities? Which I think would be a reflection on society as a whole rather than this one school in particular and I’m not sure what the author’s solution or purpose was. I assume that there is some academic based criteria for students to be put into the honor’s courses. And I would never say that I think rich people are smarter than poor people, but I do think they have access to better resources, including cultural experiences, and more time to focus on doing well in school (no worries about after school jobs or watching younger brothers and sisters while mom and dad are at work, etc.). So maybe the real issue is not a racial one, but rather a society that does little to provide opportunities to the poor, and in so doing, ensures that they will continue to stay poor. I think the author hinted at this once (I remember the students specifically talking about incomes) but then the issue resorted back to racism, and I find that frustrating. Racism is such a sensitive, explosive topic and it seems irresponsible to turn something into a black/white issue when that doesn’t really seem to be the case.
Now, if the author had taken it a step further, and begun to ask WHY it was that there were more impoverished minorities than whites, maybe the trail would have led to some racial issues…but they kept it at why are the honors classes mostly white, after already pointing out that it seemed to be a matter of money and not skin color, implying that the school, and not society, was prejudiced against minority students. I do think that racism is part of the big picture, but I don’t think the students exposed it at their school.
Which brings me to another issue…the little brother. Clearly Jennifer’s younger brother was trying to (for lack of a better term) act “black.” And since he changed after reading Jennifer’s article, it also seems clear that the author was saying it was wrong for whites to try to adopt black culture. Why? It just seems ironic to cite racism (the separation of cultures) only to admonish a character later for a misguided attempt at trying to blend two cultures. Now, maybe what was offensive was not that the little brother wanted to adopt black culture, but more what he thought black culture was about (being a pimp and disrespecting women)…but the author doesn’t say that. And the black student who helped Jennifer write the article doesn’t make any apologies for acting “white.” Not that he should, but there is a part of the story where he mentions being ostracized for other blacks for acting “white” – in other words, for being smart, well educated, articulate, intelligent, dating white girls, etc. To me, that is the bigger problem – that people are under the impression that they should act a certain way based on their race, or that acting one way (for example, calling your mom “bitch”) means that you are emulating another race. Actions aren’t black, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc. Individual people act a specific way, not a race. And the only thing the author seems to say about that is that it is disrespectful for white boys to try to act black. She doesn’t say WHY that is disrespectful, why it doesn’t go both ways, why certain actions are for blacks only, and most importantly that it is the ACTIONS, not the copying of what he thinks blacks do, that is wrong. It is that he tries to be a player, calls his mom a bitch, and is generally disrespectful that he needs to change, not that he wants to adopt another culture, but that he has adopted this particular culture, which, by the way, has nothing to do with being black!
Susan: But if teens reading this book, if they think of just a little of what you wrote above, then this book has had much more of an effect than its story of a high school break up or even a high school newspaper would seem to indicate. If teens are reading this, maybe they might think or even talk about their school, their experience of how races and classes separated or how one relates to the other. These are big questions, big issues for a “little” book.
It brings to mind a couple of things for me. Genre fiction gets no respect. Others might dismiss this book as being “chick lit for teens” and not notice the issues, the exploration of characters and of teen culture. I can think of a few other books and authors that are similar to Kantor. The Key to the Golden Firebird by Maureen Johnson tells the story of three sisters who are as different as can be, but come together to deal with the death of their father. Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler tells the story of Mara who is in her senior year of high school, working. working to become valdectorian, seemingly the kinds of senior year that anyone would want. Except her rival for valdectorian is her ex boyfriend who won’t be going to prom with her, her niece, just a few years younger, moves in and starts to attend the same school, and she realizes that she has a crush on her older slacker boss. What’s a good girl going to do? The final book I am reminded of is quite different from the others, Black and White by Paul Volponi. The story of two friends, high school basketball players, one black and one white, who get into serious trouble and how the repercussions of one are different perhaps because of the color of his skin. Gets into some of the same types of questions, albeit on a much more serious level.
As a student of policy and public administration, there are several excellent books out there that address race and poverty in the ways that you are discussing them. I just wish someone could write about them for teens in a way that makes the issue compelling and real. I do think for many teens they are sort of living in their own world and their own way and never fully comprehending that things might be, that in many cases things are different.
Wow, this certainly turned into quite the discussion! I think we’ll end here, but perhaps we’ll pick another book to discuss soon.
