If I Stay

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

320 pages

Publisher:  Penguin Group, USA LLC; April, 2009

ISBN:  0525421033

Level/Lexile:  9-12th grade/830L

Annotation/Teaser:  Seventeen year old Mia doesn't realize how fast life can change until she is involved in a fatal car accident with her family.  Now she has to make a choice.  Will she choose to stay?

Plot Summary: 

Mia, a 17 year old high school student, is ready to go to college and pursue her dream of playing the cello.  Mia is a gifted cellist who is confident that a recent audition will gain her entrance into Julliard.  Her family has a close knit relationship even though they all differ in so many ways including their taste in music.  On a winter morning, they all wake up to an unexpected snow day and school is cancelled.  The family decides to go for a drive and what happens next totally changes Mia's life forever.  There is a fatal car crash and Mia is the only one left alive.  She has an out of body experience as she is transported to the hospital and lies in a coma in ICU.  As doctors work to repair her mangled body, Mia reminisces over the course of her life and watches as countless friends and family members visit the hospital.  Soon she realizes she has an important decision to make.  Should she choose life or death?
 

About the Author:  Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, I was a journalist who specialized in reporting on young people and social-justice issues. Which is a fancy way of saying I reported on all the ways that young people get treated like crap—and overcome! I started out working for Seventeen magazine, writing the kinds of articles that people (i.e. adults) never believe that Seventeen ran (on everything from child soldiers in Sierra Leone to migrant teen farm workers in the U.S.).  Later on, I became a freelance journalist, writing for magazines
My first young-adult novel, Sisters in Sanity, was based on another one of those social justice articles I wrote when for Seventeen. Sisters was published in 2007. My next book, If I Stay, was published in April of  2009 by Dutton. It is also being published in 30 countries around the world, which is surreal. The sequel/companion book to If I Stay, Where She Went, comes out in April 2011. I  am currently working on a new YA novel, that is, when my kids (plural, after Willa we adopted Denbele from Ethiopia) allow me to. And after that book is finished, I’ll write another, and another….
Gayle Forman Bio (n.d.)  Retrieved from www.gayleforman.com/bio

Critical Evaluation:  This story is told through the point of view of the protagonist, Mia.  She is trapped between life and death must decide whether she wants to live or die.  There are flashbacks mixed in throughout the book that allows you to see the events that led up to the tragic accident that took the life of her parents and left her in this situation. The flashbacks tell of her relationship with her boyfriend and her music.  Even though this was a little hard for me to follow at first, it didn't take along before Mia's voice made it clear which was present and which was past.  I found that the first person point of view works best for this novel.  This point of view makes the reader feel as if he can feel what Mia is going through.  Foreman did a great job describing Mia's feelings and thoughts.  Another element that works well in this book is the conflict.  The main conflict is that Mia must find the answers within herself to make the decision to stay or die.  While the memories of her past life taunt her, it is clear in the end that they also help her make the decision.  "I am sitting around the breakfast table...I am visiting a cemetery...the word orphan...I am holding Teddy on my lap...I am sitting with my cello..."

Curriculum Ties:  N/A

Book Talk Ideas:  Mia and her family go for a drive one snowy day and what happens changes her life forever.  Will she choose to live and come back to life where nothing is the same?

Controversial Issues:  N/A

Defense:  

*I will keep the library's selection policy on hand and memorized with a good understanding  of the standards and policies to show that the selection meets the standards. 

*I will keep good and bad reviews (both electronic and print) and make sure they are from reliable and respected sources such as School of Library Journal, Booklist, and YALSA. I will have copies of these reviews to give away. 

*I will confirm the library's position to provide intellectual freedom as stated in the Library Bill of Rights and keep a copy of this.

*I will keep a written rationale to justify the reasons this material is included in the collection, such as educational significance and curriculum ties.

*I will be respectful and calm and practice "active listening".

*I will make sure I read the material and are very familiar with it.

   

* I will keep a reconsideration form on file in the event that my other strategies don't work. 

Why I Chose This Book?  This book it is an emotional novel and I think young adults will relate to Mia's character and her decision of choosing life or death.