Bibliography:
McMann, Lisa. 2008. Wake. New York: Simon Pulse. ISBN: 9781416953579
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. You can read their previous discussion of Melissa Kantor’s The Break Up Bible.
Susan: The fall has been busy for both of us, I had heard about Wake, by Lisa McMann, and the idea sounded intriguing, but I was prompted to pick it up when I found her on facebook and then, for some reason, started following her on twitter. I discovered that in some ways, she and I have something in common–she too is married to a minister! Once I picked up Wake, I didn’t put it down until I was done. It was a fast compelling read. Ever since I posted our first joint blog post here a while ago, I had been bugging Brandy to do another one. This was the book, I just knew it. I e-mailed her and told her about it. “And you can read it in a couple of hours and your kids will love it,” I told her. I convinced her, she got it from the local library, and read it straight through, almost at the expense of her next week’s lesson plans!
When I read books, sometimes I have to remind my self to think like a teen. I definitely feel that applies to the beginning of this book. Rather than starting the action of the current story right away, the beginning is a series of vignettes, showing the main character, Janie, at different points in her young life. I was glad when the real story kicked in, but realize that many teens might like the intriguing look into Janie at earlier ages. After reading the book, I did realize that the beginning scenes were tailor made for a movie!
Brandy: I agree, Susan. Not just the beginning scenes, but the whole book, would work perfectly as a movie. The entire novel is extremely fast-paced with tons of action, plus there are quite a few mysteries to be solved, the main characters are just cool enough to be interesting, and just lonely enough to be relatable, and of course, the premise of the book – that Janie becomes sucked into the dreams of people around her – all equal teen movie box office success. And luckily, these concepts worked well in a book, too!
Susan: I found myself wondering about the science (pseudo science?) behind the premise of the book. It has been some time since I have done any reading on the paranormal. And that lead me to remember how in the public library, there were always people wanting to read books about dreams, what they meant, how to do things in and with your dreams…of course, those books were also frequently stolen. Anyway, it made me wonder if this book might have cross over appeal to perhaps college or even older adults? Janie is a senior in high school, as I recall, and a very grown up one, in some ways. Sometimes I wonder why a book is published for teens…
Brandy: As far as your answer to why some books are published as “teen” books, I think a lot of publishers look at the main characters, and if they are teens, assume no one but other teens are interested in reading about them. Clearly not true, as you and I are both no longer teens, but still love reading YA fiction. In fact, I generally prefer YA fiction to adult fiction because of the fast-pace it moves at, the kind of questions it attempts to answer, or at least raise, whether in regards to society or the self, and of course, the search for identity, which I think most readers, even as adults, can relate to. Incidentally, these were the same qualities I enjoyed in Wake. Also, it seems like the sequel will have a more “adult” feel since Janie and Caleb are now older (though still in high school) and heavily involved in solving crimes for the police. For me, it actually had a sort of “Veronica Mars-ish” feel, but maybe that’s just because I kept picturing Kristen Bell as Janie.
And count me in as a reader who has always been fascinated by the paranormal. Even as young as fifth and sixth grade, I was very interested in the unexplainable and was fascinated by dreams. In fact, I have periodically kept dream journals (though not in recent years) and am one of those people who attempted to learn how to “control” my dreams, with limited success. Even now, I almost always remember at least one or two dreams a night, and if they are really unusual, I will sometimes spend days trying to figure out the symbolism or meaning behind a dream.
I think this book would be great for reluctant adult readers (is that even a category? If not, it should be!), but I also think there is some weird stigma about adults reading books that were written for teens.
Susan: I love it that in other coutries, and even here I think, publishers have started coming out with different editions/versions of the same titles, one directed towards teens and one towards adults, sometimes with different cover art and design even.Wake is the first of a trilogy, so that would make a nice package for adults–all three stories in one omnibus edition. (Publishers, are you listening?)
