Teen Tuesday: Are You Experienced? by Jordan Sonnenblick

Image: Macmillan

Are You Experienced? by Jordan Sonnenblick. 304 p. Feiwel & Friends/ Macmillan, September, 2013. 9781250025647. (Own).

Happy Tuesday TMS Readers! Thursday marks the 50th anniversary of The Woodstock Music Festival, which occurred on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York August 15 through 18, 1969. An estimated 400,000 people attended this outdoor event. Teen Tuesday features Are You Experienced? by Jordan Sonnenblick. 

Fifteen-year-old Rich Barber jumps at the chance to play his guitar at a protest rally even though his overly strict and overly protective parents wouldn't approve. What could go wrong? He gets busted in a raid along with his father and the two spend the night in jail. Of course, he's grounded for life. It also doesn't help that the anniversary of his uncle's death is coming up. He never met his uncle, but his dad becomes terribly depressed around the anniversary. 

But Rich is furious. He breaks into his father's locked cabinet and decides to play his dad's most prized possession. Jimi Hendrix's guitar. When he strikes that iconic chord, Rich finds himself dropped naked in the middle of a road in upstate New York where he is nearly hit by a car. Who's in the car? His fifteen-year-old father, eighteen-year-old uncle and his uncle's girlfriend and they are trying to get to the Woodstock Music Festival. 

Rich is a musician and student of Rock and Roll. He cannot believe he's actually at Woodstock! He knows the line-up of all the musicians and what they are going to play. Unfortunately, he also knows what's going to happen to his uncle in the near-1969-future. 

If you're a Sonnenblick fan, you already know about his signature combo of humor and depth and you will enjoy this YA offering. If you're a student of Rock and Roll history, you should definitely check this out. Sonnenblick vividly recreates the weekend. 

Blog Tour: Three Day Summer by Sarvenaz Tash - Bonus! Giveaway!

Three Day Summer by Sarvenaz Tash. 304 p. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. May 19, 2015. 9781481439312. (Review from arc courtesy of Blueslip Media.)

Three Day Summer actually takes place from Thursday through Monday, August 14 through the 18th,1969, when Max Yasgur rented his farm out for a three day concert known as The Woodstock Music and Art Fair. The actual concert was held in Bethel, New York. The story is told in alternating voices by Michael and Cora. 

Michael hails from a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts and arrives in Bethel on Thursday with his girlfriend Amanda and a car full of friends bent on listening to some great music and getting high. Michael isn't sure which direction his life should be taking. He has no desire to go to college and thereby deferring the draft. Nor does he wish to risk being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. His relationship with Amanda is on the rocks; it seems they argue about everything. At this point, his only passion is music and he is determined to enjoy this one-in-a-lifetime music experience. 

Cora is a hometown gal. Her older brother has been in-country for two years now. She is disturbed by his last letter home. She wants him out of there now. Her two-war veteran father is immensely proud of Mark and dismayed by his neighbor's willingness to rent his land to a bunch of war protesting hippies. He's also barely civil to Cora's twin brother,  Wes, who plans on attending the concert carrying signs protesting the war. Cora herself is a bit at sea. She's volunteering in the medical tent because she'll probably go to nursing school, but what she'd really like to do is go to medical school. She's still reeling from a recent breakup with her boyfriend, Ned.

The shifting POV works really well in this story. Cora meets Michael when he is brought to the medical tent after dropping LSD. He's not having a bad trip per se given the fact that he dropped the brown acid. Cora appears to be an exotic bird to him and he's entranced. She nurses him through his hallucinations and they go their separate ways until they meet again. Cora, ever the good girl, begins to question her whole life over the course of the weekend. The concert and Michael help to broaden her horizons. 

This appealing story gives the reader a strong sense of setting.  It would make for a great beach read. The weekend was all about sex, drugs and rock and roll so the content is a bit mature for most middle schoolers. But do give it to serious fans of rock music. Highly recommended for high school libraries. Pair it with Jordan Sonnenblick's Are You Experienced? to give contemporary readers insight into that pivotal weekend. I especially liked how the author ties in Rolling Stone magazine. Ms. Tash provides a playlist of songs on her website. She also guest blogs at several stops on the blog tour. 

Check out the other posts:

Mon, May 11

What a Nerd Girl Says

http://whatanerdgirlsays.com/

Tues, May 12

GreenBeanTeenQueen

http://www.greenbeanteenqueen.com/

Wed, May 13

Mother Daughter Book Club

http://motherdaughterbookclub.com/

Thurs, May 14

Curling Up with a Good Book

http://curling-up-with-a-good-book.blogspot.com/

Fri, May 15

The Compulsive Reader

http://www.thecompulsivereader.com/

Mon, May18

The Hiding Spot

http://thehidingspot.blogspot.com/

Tues, May 19

Adventures of a Book Junkie

http://toofondofbooks.com/

Wed, May 20

Me!

Thurs, May 21

The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia

http://hauntedorchid.blogspot.com/

Fri, May 22

Word Spelunker

http://wordspelunking.blogspot.com/

Sarvenaz Tash was born in Tehran, Iran, and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting. Sarvenaz currently lives in Brooklyn, NY. For more information, visit: sarvenaztash.com.

Twitter: @SarvenazTash

Finally, thanks to Blue Slip Media, I have a copy to give away. Leave a comment and/ or email me at bkahnlovesbooks (at) gmail (dot) com to enter. (U.S. addresses; please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery).

Are You Experienced by Jordan Sonnenblick

304 p. Feiwel & Friends, September 3, 2013. 9781250025647. (Review from Netgalley e-arc courtesy of publisher)

Fifteen-year-old Rich Barber awakens, kind of, in a hospital bed, attached to a variety of monitors and eavesdrops on a conversation his parents are having - not about him, but about an event that occurred 45 years earlier, an event that he, improbably, just attended.

Wait. What? In chapters which alternate between now, well, October, 2014, and then, Rich tells us about growing up as the overly protected only child of much older parents. Rich's dad lost his brother to a drug overdose when he was fifteen and never got over it. In fact, each year, around the anniversary of his brother's death, Rich's father gets depressed and locks himself in his study. Rich understands that this drives his parents' overbearing strictness but he's still angry about it.

Naturally, Rich chafes and rebels. His latest rebellion takes the form of a guitar performance at a protest rally. He really doesn't know what the rally is protesting. His girlfriend asked him to perform and that's enough, but he gets a bit of clue when the police as well as his dad show up. Isn't getting arrested and sharing a jail cell with your dad a great opportunity for bonding? After dressing down Rich for lying, sneaking out and getting arrested, his dad retreats to his study to commune with mementos from his past - one memento, a signed Jimi Hendrix guitar, accompanied by a cryptic note, turns out to be Rich's ticket to August 15 - 17, 1969.

Imagine meeting your fifteen-year-old father, the eighteen-year-old uncle you never met because he was (will be?) dead a few months later, and attending Woodstock! Well, meeting your fifteen-year-old father might be a bit traumatizing, especially when he's with a girl who's not your mother, but being at Woodstock would be amazing.

Rich is a likable main character. He's bright, a bit over-analytical and prone to over-use the word, "super." He's also a talented musician and devoted music scholar. His knowledge of the concert is impressive and re-inforces his 1969 friends' view that he is indeed an angel when he unwittingly blurts out what's coming up next despite what the program says.

I don't ordinarily love, or even like time-travel books. They require a leap of faith that I'm usually not willing to take. The concept is just too twisty mind-bending for my simple mind to wrap around. I liked loved this one. The time-travel trigger was brilliant. The world-building at Woodstock was vivid, given Rich's encyclopedic knowledge of rock and the event. Teens who are classic rock aficionados will love the setting. Those who are not will still enjoy it and are likely to request the documentary referenced by Rich from their local libraries. I know I want to view it. 

I was not old enough to attend Woodstock, but remember how newsworthy it was. I also love the music of the 60s and 70s but am by no means a scholar. So when I emailed the author to say how much I loved the book, I had to ask about the title. I admitted that I didn't get it. He graciously responded and I learned that, Are You Experienced? is the name of Jimi Hendrix's first album (face/palm) and it also referenced  passages that weren't in the galley, but will be in the final copy. (Hence the request by publishers to arc reviewers to note in reviews that the copy is not finished.) (And a good argument for rereading the final copy.)

I also must admit that were it not for the author (I am a huge Sonnenblick fan), given the combo of time-travel and that, IMHO, god-awful cover, I would've passed. I hear that the cover is not final. Hopefully, it will be changed. I find that my students are not attracted to psychedelic art on books. I have to sell them hard and even then, I'm more often waved away. Not only that, but given the prominence of Jimi Hendrix in the story, what's with the white rocker-dude on the cover?

Please change the cover. Fans of the author will ignore it and devour the book, especially fans who have grown up with the author, cutting their late elementary/ early middle grade teeth on his Dodger and Me trilogy, then moving on to his older middle grade offerings, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie; its companion After Ever After; Notes from a Midnight Driver; Zen and the Art of Faking It; and Curveball. 

The author wades a bit deeper into the YA pool what with Woodstock commonly thought of as the epitome of "sex, drugs and rock & roll." He handles it (mostly) cleanly, matter-of-factly and with his trademark humor. Still, drinks are drunk, (acid) trips are taken, heroin is shot and questionable choices are made. It's edgier than his earlier books, but that's okay. His fan base is aging (!) and ready for edgy. Are You Experienced? might be a bit lonely sitting all by itself over on my YA shelf (grade 7 & 8), but hopefully it will have some company soon.