ALL THE TRUTH THAT’S IN ME BY JULIE BERRY
Bibliographic Information:
Author: Julie Berry
Title: All the Truth That’s in Me
Publisher: Penguin Group
Copyright: 2013
ISBN: 9780142427309
Summary: Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared; no one in their village could find them. Two years later Judith resurfaces, with her tongue cut out, her world as she knew it has been turned upside down. Suddenly she is a social outcast forced to suffer in silence. However just because her tongue was cut out doesn’t mean that she doesn’t have anything to say; she has been holding in some dark secrets that desperately need to be revealed. Will she find the courage to speak even though it may change the life of the man she loves the most?
Critical Evaluation: Initially a few pages in I hated this book. It was so confusing to me, starting with the very first line: “You didn’t come” (who is “you”?), I didn’t get who Judith was talking to, and all these questions to this phantom person was starting to get annoying to be honest. Of course, now I know who she is “talking to”, but initially all the confusion instantly made me dislike the book. When I was able to look at the book from the perspective that she is writing a love letter to Lucas then I was able to understand and keep track of the book much better. The writing style took a while for me to get used to. I learned very quickly that I didn’t care for the second person narration.The writing style seems like some sort of verse novel or something along those lines. The detailed descriptions of the scenery and simple interactions seemed kind of long and drawn out. To me this was the author’s weakness. The long and drawn out unnecessary details were distracting me from figuring out what exactly was going on. This story is slower paced and the chapters are so short, almost like a few paragraphs if that. However, that is part of what makes the book unique. I didn’t like how the book jumps so suddenly from past to present without warning, at one point it was hard to figure out which is which until I figured out that the paragraphs where she was talking were the past and the present is when she is talking significantly less due to her tongue being cut out which is awful. It would seem like it would be so obvious to tell which is past and present, but at first it really wasn’t.
Reader’s Annotation: Judith has two choices: stay silent forever or speak her truth. Which one will she choose?
After having her fourth son, Julie Berry felt that it was time to devote her time to a dream of hers which was writing novels. She went back to school and received a M.F.A. in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. “All the Truth That’s in Me” was Julie Berry’s first YA novel. This book has won many awards such as: 2013 Horn Book Fanfare title, a School Library Journal Best of 2013 book, and a Kirkus Best Teen Read of 2013. It won a YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Award; was named a Junior Library Guild Selection, and will be published in fourteen countries.
Other books that she has written include: “The Amaranth Enchantment”, “Secondhand Charm”, “Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys”, “The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place” “The Passion of Dolssa”, and “The Emperor’s Ostrich”. Many of her other books have won awards too. “Secondhand Charm”, “All the Truth That’s in Me”, and “Splurch Academy for Disruptive Boys series” was written with her sister Sally Faye Gardner who is the illustrator for these books as well. Julie says that for those that would like to know if she is working on another book the answer is always “yes”.
Genre: Historical Fiction
Curriculum Ties: English; History
Book Talk ideas: Women in colonial times
Reading/Interest Level: Grades 9-12
Challenge and Defense Preparation:
Challenge Issues: Violence/Mutilation
Rationale:
Bibliographic Citation:
Author: Julie Berry
Title: “All the Truth That’s in Me”
Publisher: Penguin Group
Copyright Date: 2013.
Intended Audience: The intended audience is young adults specifically the upper grades of 9-12. This particular book would be beneficial for an English or social studies class. Primarily the book will be used for individual study in which every member of the class should read the book, and then afterwards there can be a group discussion of what transpired in the book as well as observations and thoughts concerning the book. “All the Truth That’s in Me” can be utilized to discuss the time period as well as women’s roles and rights during this time.
Summary: Four years ago, Judith and her best friend disappeared; no one in their village could find them. Two years later Judith resurfaces, with her tongue cut out, her world as she knew it has been turned upside down. Suddenly she is a social outcast forced to suffer in silence. However just because her tongue was cut out doesn’t meant that she doesn’t have anything to say; she has been holding in some dark secrets that desperately need to be revealed. Will she find the courage to speak even though it may change the life of the man she loves the most?
Relationship to Program: The relationship of the book to school objectives would be helping 9th graders develop their literal and inferential understanding skills and comprehension skills. Through reading this book they would learn and develop the following skills: SLE #R. 9.9.2. Identify specific ways an author accomplishes purpose, including organization, narrative and persuasive techniques, style, literary forms or genre, portrayal of themes, tone and intended audiences; R.9.9.4 Recognize how works of a given period reflect author’s background, historical events, and cultural influences; and R.9.9.5 Draw inferences from a sentence or a paragraph (including conclusions, generalizations and predictions) and support them with text evidence. Concerning summary and generalization students will utilize R.9.9.8 Summarize and paraphrase structures in informational and literary texts, including relationships among concepts and details and R. 9.9.13 Identify and discuss a position using concepts gained from reading (e.g. debate, discussion, position paper, etc.). Concerning analysis and evaluation students will utilize R. 9.9.11 Recognize and define various points of view (e.g., omniscient narrator, third person limited).
Impact: Of course, the main impact of the book is that it will open new perspectives to its readers. This book can introduce the students to a time period that isn’t covered heavily in history text books. Also, this gives an up close look at what the women in that time period went through and how they were expected to behave. While the second person narration is sometimes difficult to understand, it forces the reader to pay attention to the details as much as possible since it isn’t always clear whether Judith is discussing the past or present. The students may very well like the different style of narration, and go on to look for books written in a similar style.
Why Included: This book certainly isn’t your average teen book. Written in a second person narration as well as discussing an often overlooked time period are the two main features that make this book unique. While the first initial pages may be difficult to get through, it really is a great book. This would be my “try something new” book for teens because its features definitely set it apart from other books. There is a very good chance that there aren’t a whole lot of books that are like this for teens so I’d want the teens to read it to be exposed to different writing styles and time periods.
Marlia's Blog 