April 13th, 2012:

Jesse Andrews's name and this particular title have come up in two separate conversations or interactions this week. This means that the book is on the reading radar and the two people I was talking to this week know books. They know titles.

I want to share what I had to say about ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL.

I very cheekishly said that I thought Jesse Andrews had created the antithesis to John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. I want to keep this with thought for must a moment. It is. To be funny. And to provide an in-road to a deeper conversation about books, readers, and choice.

The characters in THE FAULT IN OUR STARS were dealing with a difficult subject painfully familiar to so many. It is raw. It is tender. It is poignant. It is memorable and discussion ready. The characters are deep thinkers, most cerebral in their thinking processes and communications. They enjoy the deeper cultural elements. There are readers for Green's book as much as there are readers for WHY WE BROKE UP, WINTER TOWN, and other thoughtful books from the past couple of years.

Now. Let me tell you about the lovable knucklheads I have in one of my reading communities. Faced with the notion that someone relatively close--but not related--was dying and some of these fellows would go right back to watching FAMILY GUY or ANNOYING ORANGE videos. And if pressed to communicate their inward feelings, what you might get in the room would be different than what might be expressed around the corner as these guys talk amongst themselves.

Snark is a language teens speak and they speak it well. We deal with this almost every day in Room 407. Show a sentimental video clip in class and someone will have a comment. It's how some of these kids process. And it should be a guage for how we select classroom reading and how we do reader advisory in the classroom.

No wonder Greg and Earl talk the way they do in Andrews's book. No wonder they cannot be bothered to put down their FLIP cameras long enough to process mortality and its related issues.

I believe there is an audience of this book. I am one. I have one friend in the building with whom I can share a short section of plan period to talk about 80's toys and games or to share a YouTube video that WE find funny (sometimes for reasons we cannot explain). Our kids are like this too. You know them. You want them to be more without realizing--right now--they are probably enough and know things in ways and means that we do not know them.

I have had five people read this book since its release. One reader did not want to wait and he went out and bought his own copy after our SKYPE interaction with Jesse back in early March. If I could have predicted the readers who would seek out this book, I would have been six for six. And I know six more who are ready readers for a book like ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL.

My end point is this. I love ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL. Is it the best book to present on the subject of "death and dying?" Is it the best title to present on the subject of "familial relationships and socioeconomics?" I don't know.

Would I "ladder" this book with TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE? Yes.
With THE FAULT IN OUR STARS? Yes.
With Walter Dean Myers's MONSTER? Yes.

Would I select this title as a whole-class novel? No.

But this is because I know my readers as a group. And as individuals.

Would I recommend this book without reservation based upon what I know about my readers?

Emphatically Yes.