Scrapbook of My Revolution

This book was a revolution in the word of YA books! It tackles social issues in a great way. I loved the characters of the story, the plot, the everything!

Amber is a Michigan teen…but she’s no normal teen. She is Malian – a human with various and unusual skin tone shades, who also possess a supernatural ability. There are four types of Malians: Sensitive, Athletic, Camo, Manipulative. Each type, by definition, is extremely broad:

Sensitive – Any Malian whose skills lie in the mental region.

Athletic – Any Malian whose skills lie in the physical region.

Camo – Any Malian whose skills lie in the ability to camouflage themselves.

Manipulative – Any Malian whose skills lie in the ability to change the environment.

There were tons of ways for each “talent” to manifest itself, and each kid born seemed to have their own way of doing things. The kid down the street…could talk to animals, but technically she was a Sensitive like me.

Amber is unhappy not being a Regular; being different and being an outcast, with no explanation why, is a hard thing for a teen to digest. Even harder when you can read the feelings of your parents, and those feelings contradict their words. She is a Sensitive: she can read the emotions others around her feel. It is frustrating because she just gets the emotion, not the reason for the emotion. Kids at school often abuse this ability. It is very awkward when kids ask what the captain of the basketball team is “thinking” – and he’s thinking he has a crush on the math nerd across the room…who’s a boy. And the math nerd is totally homophobic. What’s a girl to say?

But what’s more is that Amber is golden. Like a walking goddess dusted in gold. She attracts the attention of all the boys in school, who Desire her. Some of them are quite crude. Being a Malian and being a teen Malian is not an easy road, and it has manifested in Amber. She is not one for crowds, given her ability – but it’s hard to run around with her cousin Bree, who is insistent and pushy and slightly manipulative. She does it out of love, but sometimes she just doesn’t know when to let up.

f_0scrapbooking6The book is aligned almost with the beginning of the school year, kicking off with Amber’s birthday, and ending that same time the following year. Her Regular cousin, Bree, gives her a scrapbook to document meaningful things that year. The entire book was laced with newspaper clippings, receipts, notes, fliers and drawings, just the kind of things that Amber would put in the scrapbook Bree gave her for her birthday. After a couple of chapters it hit me like a Mack truck that the book is the scrapbook!

The principal of Amber’s school is of course a Regular, and is fearful of offending her Regular school population….causing her PC-ness to be discriminatory and honestly, racist, toward the Malian population. The previous year, an incident happened downstate at a high school gathering, which caused a riot between Regulars and Malians, dubbed the Grand River Halloween Riot. Jonny Marino, a Malian high school student, was blamed for the riot and expelled from the school. Turns out, a friend of Amber’s knows Marino, who shows up later in the book and causes quite a stir.

Given that back history, Principal Bardha has banned any kind of face or body paint at the upcoming Halloween dance, held every other year. Bree is justifiably infuriated about the principal’s fear and strict line of PC-ness, which is discriminatory to Malians. Bree and Amber both decide to take a stand to this discrimination: Bree dresses as a china doll with pale face paint and rosy red cheeks, and Amber dresses as an Amazon with minimal face paint and a few bands around her arms – which leads to a confrontation with Bardha and a dramatic Golden Goddess model walk that drops jaws. But we learn that other Regulars and Malians also took a stand and defied the principal to stand up for their rights, which is a big component of this book.

After the dance, while with Amber and Bree, a Malian friend is assaulted by a young, Regular boy. The girls all chase him and his friends down the beach, bellowing hollow threats. Bree is insistent that they report the incident to the police…but who would the police believe? It is a very real situation that women everywhere face: who’s going to believe me? It’s a hard thing to face, and it brings to light the very issues Amber and her fellow counterparts face in a world that is not only unaccepting, but fearful.

Everyone was waiting to see what we’d become…including us.

Additionally, a well-supported group, Regulars Against Malian Menace (RAMM), has formed and is very outspoken about their hatred of the Malians, the first generation of which are now Amber’s age. The RAMM leader uses terms like “The Malian Situation,” how Malians need to be “cured,” “eradicating the problem” and Malians being an “afflicted people.” So, the fact that Malians are a new make-up of the population is another hard thing Amber and her counterparts must face. It’s also scary to have someone saying such hateful things…things that the country had seen before with the Native Americans, and settlers nearly effectively eradicated them. And then there was slavery. It’s not hard to imagine how Malian teens feel about their future. and how they see things going down. The leader of the Michigan RAMM base is Abraham Baronson (ironic, no?), who has said the President is handling the situation with “kid gloves,” but the President is now requiring voluntary testing of Malian genetics…I’m not so sure how “voluntary” this movement is, and Amber and other Malians aren’t sure what they’ll find.

You wanna fly a kite?

kite_soaringAnd as always with YA dystopian fiction, there is always a kind of love triangle, one guy stuck with the old and one braving forward with the new. We’ve seen it in the popular series Uglies and Hunger Games. High school friend Cam (a Camo) is very quiet and hides in the shadows, and of course Jonny is an outgoing, outspoken rallying figure for political change for Malians. Cam is the one guy in school who has never overtly ogled Amber with Desire. Jonny is the kind of guy Amber is unsure if she can trust. There’s just something about him. Was he an innocent bystander at the Grand River Halloween party….or did he do something more, as prosecutors claim? There’s something sinister about him that doesn’t meet the eye.

Right before Christmas, an article is published alluding to the building ideas of the RAMM supporters, and the Malians – that both sides are building supporters…and warriors? The reporter states peace is no longer going to reign in the world, but that something akin to a war is brewing. Amber decides to do something before others do it and ruin it. She decides to start a Malian awareness group called Lake Michigan Malian Supporters, LaMMS.

Lambs and rams. Which one seems more gentle? Which one seems more…battering? Which image do you sympathize with – a gentle lamb or a battering ram? I don’t find Spitzley’s use of this a coincidence, although it is intended to be coming from Amber. But LaMMS puts Amber on display for all the world to see – and makes her an easy target. Seems it isn’t the first “incident” of Malian-directed malice by Regulars. With a rash of outbursts, beatings, break-ins (and who know’s what all else going unreported) against Malians, what does this hold for their future?

Even a revolution can start small.

Heads Up: this book does contain “foul” language. This book takes on a lot of controversial topics: evolution, superiority, fear, malice, anger, judgement. The book is divided into two sections, the first Innocence and the second Revolution. Those titles are very indicative of Amber’s attitude toward Jonny Marino.

After reading two pages on my Kindle, I didn’t think I could continue reading due to the smaller-than-normal font, in combination with the font text style. It was really hard on my eyes. But by page two I was into the story. Who cares about your eyes? Besides that, the only other thing that bugged me was the blatant overly conversational style of writing that Spitzley picked for this novel. I understand that this is a technique employed to connect with the YA audience, but I feel like it is catering too much to the kind of teens (like my brothers) who eye roll and mutter under their breath to friends after an adult speaks to them; the kind of kids who exude senses of entitlement. I don’t think that’s a positive. There were many sentences that ended with “you know?” and it just kind of turned me off, and it somewhat alienates non-teen readers.

Amber experiences a lot of growth in such a short time. She has matured past her young age, and her friends are following suit. They are walking a very fine line to promote their cause but not create waves. She realizes mistakes she’s made, and she tries to fix them and not make those same mistakes again. She is a natural leader, and a great role model. She has evolved as a person, used her influence for good, and she’s warmed and strengthened her relationship with her parents. I hope Spitzley’s YA readers see the changes in Amber from beginning to end, and the strong character she has become.

I definitely see a series in progress here. I don’t think this is the end of Amber and LaMMS…or of Jonny Marino.

Thank you to Curiosity Quills Press for providing me with a copy of Scrapbook of My Revolution through NetGalley. In no way did this affect my opinion of the book.

I went into Scrapbook of My Revolution thinking that it would be another typical dystopian- class segregation, political intrigue, some sort of epic adventure....but surprisingly, from the first few chapters (and indeed most of the book) it basically seemed to me like a contemporary novel with a slight science fiction twist. I actually enjoyed the novel a lot more than I thought I would- it was quite riveting. Somehow, I was expecting big things to happen, and although not much happened on the world stage, Spitzley went with the realistic route and had Amber and her friends manage to make changes within their smaller community.

Something that was quite interesting was that the book was set up like an actual scrapbook- complete with pictures (newspaper cuttings, photos, drawings) and font that looks like handwriting. Clearly, much care was taken with the design, as there are nice little details throughout to make it seem more like a real scrapbook e.g. fingerprints and smudges (on another note, since I was reading the book on my iPad, I kept scrubbing at the little marks thinking they were on the actual iPad. EVERY TIME.)

"So Amber, what's that guy in the corner thinking?"

It's always about thinking. I don't get "thinking". I get "feeling". And let me tell you, sometimes that's worse.

Our main character Amber, as a "Sensitive" Malian, has the ability to feel the emotions of those around her, but not why they're feeling those emotions. Amber was quite a likable character, with a very strong voice and snarky headstrong personality- as I suppose one would have to have if they could read the emotions of others. I did find it a bit annoying that she was stringing on two guys at the same time (Jonny and Cam, as mentioned in the blurb), although on that note, it was clear that one of them was the better love interest. I absolutely loved the connection between Amber and Cam. Their relationship was built up slowly (some even before the beginning of the novel, as Amber mentions having liked Cam for a long time) and as the reader, I could definitely see the sparks between them.

He was three feet away when all his emotions came rolling at me. Frustration-Anger-Caring-Desire-LOVE.

I found the concept of Malians rather interesting- especially the different skin colours (I can't get the image of this poor hot pink boy out of my head...the bullies would have a field day)- although one thing I would have liked to see explained (once the characters themselves find out, of course) is the background to the Malians- why are they called Malians? Where did they come from?

There isn't a sequel listed on Goodreads...and I'm a bit sad about that because I kind of want there to be one. I want to see what happens to Amber and her friends, and whether the prejudices of the rest of the world can be overcome. Perhaps for the younger young adult readers, this book was still one that was quite unique and interesting.

Ratings

Overall: 8/10

Plot: 4/5

Writing: 4/5

Characters: 4/5

Cover: 3/5

This book was wonderful. I loved everything about it. This book is inspiring and revealing. I would recomend this book for everyone young and old alike. Amber is a great character and I really enjoyed her strength and determination. She really shows what happens when one person takes a stand for something they believe in. Wow. Moving and fun too. This book has it all.

An interesting look at racism and prejudice with an added threat of special abilities. I wasn't a fan of the font used - it made it a lot more difficult to read than those that are usually used. I also had a difficult time getting a good picture in my head of what the different colored people would look like. And it seemed pretty preachy to me about tolerance and such.
On the plus side, there was a decent story about friends and what their lives were like dealing with the prejudice against them. 
Thank you to netgalley.com and Curiosity Quills Press for letting me read this. I will probably be adding this to my collection.

This is one of the first books I read on my new iPad, and it was a good choice. This was a gorgeous reading experience (I'm talking about both Retina and the book). Because this was a scrapbook, there were loads of images, and they showed up beautifully.

Seriously, beautiful.

Ok, enough about how beautiful it is, let's talk story. This book has as it's protagonist Amber Alexander, a Malian. A Malian is kinda like an X-Men, as she is born with a superpower - in this case, the ability to read emotions. Plus, she's golden. That's the two traits of Malians - superpowers and different skin colours (there are others, but they're not widely known). And like the X-Men, there's an Anti-Malian group about making this difficult for them.

As a result of events, Amber starts up a Lake Michigan Malian Support group (check name) and gets pulled into a revolution of her own. In the process, she gets to know this guy called Jonny Marino, a persuasive Malian who may or may not have an evil agenda.

To be honest, the first one third of the book bored me. And this is from someone who likes slow books! Somehow though, her descriptions of her angst (and her way of coping) due to being a golden girl desired by all guys just bored me. But, the book picked up after she formed her group and I was pulled into the story.

Character-wise, I think it was fine. It definitely wasn't bad, but I'll be hard-pressed to say they were exceptional. I liked Amber and her (regular) cousin Bree, but some characterisations, like Kevin the blue Asian kind of annoyed me. Why did he have to be alchoholic?

One warning, while there is nothing explicit in this book, there is a lot of innuendo. I didn't have to skip any sections, but I was uncomfortable with certain conversations - and I certainly don't condone their morals.

So in conclusion, I'd reccomend this for older teens looking for an X-Men like book.

Set in the future and told in the form of a scrapbook this is about the Malian, children that are born different, with skin colours that gave them special abilities, such as sense, sound, blending in and empathy. Amber was born with gold skin able to read emotions.

Amber along with friends sets up a group at school to support people like her. It is really a story that looks at us as individuals and how we deal with each other whatever differences we have. It was cleverly done in a scrapbook form. Some of the characters were not well portrayed while others such as Amber were written with feeling for who she was.