More on Chicklet Lit

My constant readers are probably aware that I am not a fan of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. In fact, I've never even been able to bring myself to read the book's spawn. However, I found this nice graphic for the movie and found it notable because Amber Tamblyn of Joan of Arcadia and Alexis Bledel of The Gilmore Girls will both be appearing in it. Personally, I can't help wondering who gets to play the girl who...ah...you know...with the camp counselor? And will the movie show it? Supposedly a lot of girls who read the book don't think that happened. Though it so did.

In related news--if you can call an article in a three month old magazine "news"--The Horn Book carried an article entitled "Chick Lit and Chick Flicks: Secret Power or Flat Formula" by Lauren Adams. Ms. Adams, bless her, has read a wide-array of chicklet lit, compares it to adult chick lit (primarily Bridge Jones), and the many movies coming out these days aimed at teen girls. She's a great deal fonder of Bridget Jones than I am and doesn't have much good to say about Georgia Nicolson, though I think we both pretty much agree that she got the chicklet lit ball rolling.

I want to pause and say here that just because I can't bring myself to read chicklet lit beyond the fabby fab fab Georgia does not mean that young women shouldn't read it. All these pastel covered books aren't meant for women of a certain age like myself. They are written for teen women who do, indeed, appear to enjoy them. I believe that reading is a form of communication, in case I haven't mentioned it before. Readers and writers and maybe the characters the writers create for their readers all form a sort of relationship. Of course, readers want to form relationships with people like themselves. Lauren Adams suggests that some of these books involve sexual empowerment, something teenage women may be into today. They certainly weren't into it when I was that age. I'm barely into it now.

Many of the books I've tried reading seem very formulaic to me. I don't care for formulas. Or maybe I just don't care for this one. But young people, again, do seem to enjoy a good formula.

So, while I'm going to be avoiding these things much as I avoid...uh...I can't think of a good analogy right now. But my point is, I can respect others' taste.

Really. I can.