conflict – Mrs. Kinnamore’s Bookshelf

What are the potential possibilities when the concept of harvesting divided bodies for their parts becomes part of the lawful state? Who is safe? Is it possible to be an Unwind and still continue to live? Who decided this plan was a good idea? And why doesn’t anyone make it stop?

In this young adult novel, Neal Shusterman takes the reader down a dark and disturbing road to a time when teenagers are marked to be unwound. To have their organs harvested for the benefit of those more desirable than the terribles who will be taken apart piece by piece. What about the Unwinds who are thrust into harvest because of family beliefs that it is the responsible thing to do? These teenagers who are donated, or tithes as they are called, are groomed to believe that their lives have a higher calling because they were fulfilling their destiny to help their fellow man by donating their healthy body parts to those who would transplant or graph them to a person in need.

In this dystopian society, the practice of unwinding is completely normal and everyone has a role to play. You are either an Unwind, or you are someone who remains eligible to receive organs or other body parts because you have positively contributed to society and your community. As an Unwind, you will not benefit from the removal and transplant of your parts – but the law promises that you will be left alive. Harvesting body parts and organs is not intended to kill a person, it is just intended to extend or improve the life of others.

As a teacher, this book presents so many different conversation starters for the classroom. The connection to current events, ethics, morality, justice, fairness, human rights, symbolism, characterization, tone, and perspective are just a handful of ideas that come to mind after reading this book. There are main characters, who each present a different journey to being an Unwind. A girl and two boys who readers follow throughout the story as they encounter many more secondary characters who directly shape and potentially shift how the reader feels about each character. There are characters for readers to love, and some to hate. Each one bringing additional depth to this book that has chilling references to current events and places that the readers will recognize as real in our everyday world.

Being an elementary school teacher, this book is outside of what I would normally select for classroom use for my students. I cannot deny that I believe some of my previous students would be interested in this book for the shock and chaos elements that make up so much of the complex storyline. I would recommend this book for upper middle school, or high school students based on maturity and exposure to complex concepts – their developmentally appropriate ability to separate fact and fiction.

Personally, I am still not sure I can say whole heartedly that I liked this book. But – I am definitely intrigued about what happens next. This book is the first in a series by Neal Shusterman and it was a book that once I began reading I wanted to stop but couldn’t stop because I was compelled to know what happened next. I have talked about this book to everyone I spoke to this week. Like it or not, it absolutely held my attention and made me think!

Ideas for Classroom Incorporation of Unwind, by Neal Shusterman

ELA: have students write their own Bill of Life, write an argument for or against unwinding, debate unwinding, create character webs identifying internal and external traits for 1 main and 1 secondary character, create a trailer for the prequel of Unwind that explains how and why unwinding came to be
SCIENCE: (biology) anatomy
ECONOMICS: budgeting, how to financially support yourself – your family – an underground community in the dystopian state, establish financial rules for different elements of society

Very rarely does a book have such a powerful opening page that I am compelled to comment out loud as I’m reading. This book did, and I struggled to put it down.

This young adult novel allows readers to get to know Vera Dietz in the aftermath of a terribly tragic loss in her life. As Vera works through the days and months that follow burying her childhood best friend and neighbor, she must deal with inner conflicts that have gone unmended between her and her father, her and her mother, and most importantly between her and herself because her conflict with her friend Charlie is now amplified by his death. Dealing with death and loss is never easy, and dealing with death and loss that is surrounded in lies tangled up in guilt and shame and anger is even more difficult.

The author wrote this book mainly from Vera’s perspective, with brief inserts to allow the reader to hear from the other characters – including the dead kid. This opens the reader’s mind to the different sides of each conflict between the characters. The story is often raw and painfully direct, written in a way that makes the characters seem very real. I know that I kept reading because the more I read, the more questions I had about what happened to Vera? What happened to Charlie? What really happened at the neighbors house? Was there something more sinister between the characters? Sometimes my questions were answered, sometimes I was given just enough information to create new questions and still leave me wondering.

Vera was wondering, too. Her questions and inner conflicts finally grew to become so heavy that she could no longer ignore them. Although it was not easy, she found a way to come to terms with some of the turmoil in her life and a way to make peace enough to move forward.

I can see this book being well suited for the upper middle school and high school classroom. I believe that the students may relate to the characters while being intrigued by the suspense of trying to piece together what happened to Vera’s friend Charlie the night he died. I believe it would be interesting to read this book in small groups with students to hear their take on the conflicts that Vera is struggling with, and how they interpret each character and situation. Students could discuss or even just be prompted to think about What should Vera do? What would I do? This book is a longer read, and may be best suited for readers with more experience and stamina to read independently. If a teacher is interested in motivating students to read for themselves, this book would make a great first chapter read aloud to capture their attention.

Ideas for Classroom Incorporation of Please Ignore Vera Dietz

ELA: point of view, types of conflict, vocabulary, character traits, plot

Social/Emotional: relationships, social justice, personal responsibility, self-control, secrets vs. confidential, making mistakes, restoration