Every You, Every Me

Sean Herrero ENGL 112B Dr. Warner

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

About Levithan:  Website: http://davidlevithan.com/ [image from Wikipedia]  Born in Milburn, New Jersey and currently resides in Hoboken, New Jersey  Writer of Boy Meets Boy and receiver of a Margaret Edwards Award  For Every You, Every Me he worked with photographer Jonathan Farmer.

Summary: A psychological story that centers around Evan, a emotionally unstable teen, as he struggles with the absence of his friend, Ariel, while dealing with the fact that he is alone. He is plagued by his memories and cannot seem to let go of what happened between him and Ariel. Evan then finds an envelope containing a photograph of where he is currently standing and writes it off as just being coincidence. Then the next day and in the same spot, Evan finds another envelope this time containing a picture of him. He begins to believe that the photos are somehow related to Ariel and what he had done to her.

Significant Quotes: "I Thought: You don't understand that talking is hard for me. I watch all of you doing it, but I just can't. I could with her. But I can't now." (73) This line helps convey what the 'redacted' lines represent and mean, that largely these are things left unsaid and for the thoughts of Evan. The line itself also shows the insecurity and anxiety Evan feels regarding conversing with his peers. When asked simple and harmless questions, his response is largely silence; despite the fact his inner voice is very active.

"I threw the [...] I was just like you" (95) This "scene" shows the turmoil that Evan is going through as he cannot bear the change that is going on around him. He lashes out and lets out his emotions run wild, showing his instability while showing that he is unable to move forward and let go of his grief. "You see a photograph and you try and make yourself be there. But you can't. Even if you were there. You can't." (127) The significance in this line, as well for the whole chapter, is that it comes off as being philosophical and insightful. Showing that while Evan may be emotionally instable, he is capable of deep and complex thoughts. However his level of thinking, as well as regret, keeps him from sleeping and instead focusing (almost obsessing) over the photographs he finds.

Teaching Every You, Every Me: This book would be best taught to students in the 9th or 10th grade as it incorporates a complex narrative that requires extra thought into how to read the book, while also containing mature content. As a way of entering into creative writing or a more creative assignment for a Language Arts class, the teacher could bring in a photo/image that the students can write either a short story or a narrative essay about either the contents of the photo/image or about the photograph itself. Which is how Levithan wrote Every You, Every Me, he would be given photographs by Jonathan Farmer to which Levithan would write the story without any influence from Farmer and Farmer had no influence from Levithan during the writing of the novel. The book seems to best fit in the chapter four in Adolecents in the sear for meaning: Tapping the Powerful Resource of Story about real-life experiences. Evan is often portrayed as struggling within his own skin when he tries having a conversation with his peers on top of trying to come to terms with himself and what he did to Ariel. This book shows that even though teens may seem quiet and withdrawn, those teens are often trapped in a storm of their own thoughts (either good or bad). The book also tries to put forward the fact that someone does not have to suffer alone, and that often there are supporting people that want to lend a hand.

Text Complexity: Lexile rating: HL440L ATOS Level: 3.8 New Dale-Chale Readability: 6.2.

The text contains easy to read language that makes it easy to pick up and read, especially at to a high school student. However, the book does contain enough complexity, with its narrative design, for it to be engaging and relatable to a teen between the ages of 14 and 17. The text also incorporates black and white photographs to add to the narrative and it uses 'white space' to add tension, which adds more pages without containing lots of words and text.