What's Happening Out There

There was lots of talk last week about a New Yorker article entitled Candy Man about Roald Dahl. Not being a major Dahl fan, myself, I just got around to reading it. The author says that Dahl is more popular with kids than adults, which is as it should be since he is a children's writer. Personally, I prefer his adult short stories>

The new Horn Book has a review of a book called The Diary of Pelly D by L. J. Adlington that I think looks promising.

The Connecticut Center for the Book puts out a publication called Readings. The Summer, 2005 issue includes an article called Drawn to Books by Christine Palm that says original children's illustrations are becoming very collectible. And valuable.

And finally Blog of a B.S. reports that the Disney version of Snow White is going to be remade as...a martial arts movie! The seven dwarfs will be replaced by seven martial artists! I can't manage a link to the original article, but I saw it! And I can't wait!

Harry Potter Backlash

Meo-o-o-w! The Guardian disses Jo. (Thanks to Blog of a B.S. for link.) And so does Joel Stein in the L.A. Times. I'm a Stein fan, but I have to say, he's done funnier stuff. (Thanks to Child_Lit for the link.)

Would Our Men and Women in Iraq Appreciate A Used Potter?

While researching what to send to a relative serving in Iraq, I found Operation Paperback, an organization that collects lightly used paperbacks to send to American service people in any number of countries. Of course, I think that's a good idea, even though there's absolutely nothing in it for me because the organization asks that you not send books geared toward a teenage audience.

Which opens up the can of worms discussed at links I posted earlier today. Is Potter for adults or not?

Wrong Time, Wrong Place, As Usual

I missed the last Buy a Friend a Book Week, and I'm way too early for the next one. It seems like a good idea, though. I hope they'll put up a kids' book or YA title before October.

Another One?

Look! Another kidlit blog. It appears to be an infant, only three months old.

But the Book is Sure to be so Big

I ought to write something about ol' Harry Potter, huh, since he's due to make an appearance any minute. It's hard to get up any enthusiasm. I'll read it because I feel I ought to, but I'm not looking forward to the experience. Those are big books to be reading in bed. Fortunately, my sister preordered a copy months ago. I'm planning to latch on to it at some point.

What if a Problem Book is About a Problem That Interests You?

There's just no way I can finish my problem book monologue.

Last week I read Sweetblood by Pete Hautman. Sweetblood is about a teenage diabetic with a big interest in vampires. On top of that, she's angry and frustrated about the constraints her illness puts on her life. Big, big problem, right? Plus there's a first person narrator with an attitude, which is oh, so common in problem books. Though I am a little bit of a sucker for a vampire story (Get it? Sucker? Vampire?), there were various points where I felt this was just another problem book, vampire interest or not.

Here's the thing, though--I have a young relative who has had a chronic health problem for a few years, since he was around 16. The problem is nowhere near as serious as diabetes, but it impacts every day of his life. He was a pissed off teenager, anyway, (pardon my French, as they say, but the main character in the book is always talking about being pissed off and wondering how that differs from being angry) and having his health issue gnawing at him all the time definitely made him more so. He's frustrated and negative, and his mom, just like the mom in Sweetblood is always wringing her hands and fearful of how he'll be today or, when he's at college, how she'll find him if she calls.

I think the author nailed a lot of things right on the head. And I thought the ending was both positive and realistic, suggesting the main character could change her way of living and her attitude without changing who she is.

So, what am I saying here? That a problem book is okay so long as it deals with my problems? I can barely sit through the crummy ones when they're about someone else's problems. I've read that some writers believe their problem books are serving a therapeutic purpose, and my own experience suggests that may be true. But these books will only be therapeutic if they fall into the hands of people who share the problem.

This is one of the many, many things in life that I mull over but never resolve.

I Read Two Good Books! Two!

I am on a roll--one good book after another.

I finally read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timeby Mark Haddon. This book has received lots and lots of buzz, deservedly so. The narrator is an autistic teenager who sets himself the task of learning who killed his neighbor's dog and learns a whole lot he wasn't expecting. His is a truly unique voice, and while I have no way of knowing whether or not the author has given us a true portrayal of an autistic person's world, the world he does give us is fascinating.

I've read that this book was originally published as YA and crossed-over to adult, that it was published as an adult book and crossed-over to YA, and that it was published for both audiences simultaneously. There's no reason why both groups shouldn't read and be intrigued by it, but I do wonder what the big attraction is for YAs. Sure there's a very sympathetic teen character, but...well, as I'm writing this all the arguments I was going to make don't seem to work, mainly because they would all pertain equally to adult readers.

Now, Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson seems to be another book that ought to cross-over with adult readers. Though I liked Anderson's earlier book, Speak, I would never have read Prom because of its title. I was not a prom type and I find it a somewhat creepy ritual. However, they were discussing it at one of my listservs so I made the effort.

I loved the book. I thought it was very well done. One of the things I liked best about this book was that Ashley was part of a working class family who was just fine with their lot. In many books, a working class family is something the main character wants to escape and the family is portrayed in such a way that readers agree--get the hell out of there. But Ashley's family, though they couldn't afford much and had a chaotic lifestyle,were loving and seemed happy with working a job that provided just enough to get by. Playing ball, taking care of their kids,
getting together with their family members--I loved spending time with
people who were not angst-ridden. Though Ashley had typical teen embarrassment regarding her family and desire to get away, she is definitely part of that family, too.

I must admit, I wasn't happy with the epilogue, but then I've never read an epilogue I liked. To me they seem as if the author got tired of writing and didn't want to do a real ending for the book.

Still, Prom is a book I think both adults and YAs can enjoy.

Grown-ups Just Can't Get Enough of YA

The adult world loves to comment on YA lit. The Wall Street Journal
carries an article called You're Reading What?, that reports on the success of YA recently and reviews some titles. These folks aren't tsk-tsking, though. Simply reporting and reviewing. (They weren't crazy for Looking for Alaska, either.) Thanks to Blog of a B.S. for the link.

More on Jane Yolen and Me

My loyal fans know I have a little obsession with Jane Yolen's on-line journal. Rest assured, even if I'm not talking about it, I'm still reading it. Unfortunately, Jane reported recently that her husband appears to be suffering a recurrence of cancer. (I say "appears" because I am pathologically hopeful, and I'm thinking that at this early stage a mistake has been made and it's something else. No, I don't know what else.) The first time I heard Jane speak was at the University of Connecticut, and her husband was in the audience. They had a little charming repartee going. Later I heard her speak at the University of Massachusetts when her husband had just been diagnosed the first time. She apologized for not having spent as much time preparing for the talk as she usually does. Nonetheless, her presentation was great.

Jane and her husband definitely seem like a lovely couple with an interesting life together, and I sincerely hope they get through this health crisis.

A Round-up of Recent Reads

No, I didn't disappear off the face of the earth. I actually had things to do in the late afternoon and evening last week. And yesterday.

But I don't today, so I'm back.

Okay, a few weeks ago I read The Wish List by everyone's favorite Eoin Colfer. This was a pleasant book, and, as the review I link to puts it, it has a redemption theme. I am totally into redemption themes, needing, as I do, redemption myself. I think I would have liked this book a great deal more, however, if I were a teenager and wasn't familiar with the "come back from the dead to earn your place in Paradise" storyline. The afterlife figures are funny, but I've read about funny afterlife folks before. So, as I said, the teens this book is written for should like it better than I did. Teen Gail would have loved it.

Now, this next part I jotted down in my little notebook while I was waiting for Batman Begins to begin. I wasn't being rude. The rest of my family was sitting in the next theater waiting for Star Wars to start. I find the Star Wars movies so tedious, I'm not even going to bother with a link.

Anyway, as I was writing while waiting for Batman Begins to begin: One day I was going through the notebook I carry in my purse looking for something I can no longer recall, when I stumbled upon a page with Midnight for Charlie Bone written at the top. Nothing else. Couldn't remember why I wrote it down in the first place. But I stopped at the library on my way home and picked it up.

Charlie Bone is part of a series called The Children of the Red King by Jenny Nimmo. It's often compared to the Harry P. books, though I actually think the basic premise for Charlie Bone is more interesting.

Once, generations ago,there was a red king who was a magician. He had ten chilren who had each inherited some aspect of his talents. Five of them were good and five of them were bad. And to this day the descendants of the Red King are "endowed" with magical talents, and some of them are good and some of them are evil. A bunch of them end up at a boarding school where the good students hope to provide balance against the evil students.

I like this jumping off point, but I didn't think the book was all that well done. The first half reminded me of Chasing Vermeer in that there was no causal relationship between the plot elements. The plot was more a list of things that happened rather than one thing leading to another. The bad-guy student is a stereotypical Malfoy-type. And we know barely anything about the students who come through for Charlie in a clinch.

And yet...and yet...I became quite interested in the second half of the book. This particular volume ended up reading very much like an intro. Okay, not the world's greatest intro, either. But I became interested enough that if I have time and the second book drops into my lap, I just may read it.

I know that's not a rave, but remember where it's coming from.

A Roundup of Links

I'm trying to spellcheck, wordcount, hunt for a specific error that may or may not exist, and print the eighth draft of the book that's supposed to come out next week. So I'm going to try to do a roundup of some links I've found recently.

First off, check out ACHOCKABLOG's favorable comments about The Problem with "Problem" Young-adult Fiction, which I discussed yesterday. (A June 18th post.)

This article about Louise Rennison is far more interesting. (Thanks to ACHOCKABLOG for the link.

The Washington Post carried a review of the animated version ofHowl's Moving Castle. Not a rave. I know other reviews have been positive, I just haven't read them. Though I enjoyed the book, I can't see myself going to the movie. It just looks too cute. (Thanks to Blog of a B.S.)

The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards have been announced. Notice that Kalpana'sDream by Judith Clarke won a little something? I haven't read it, but I'm a big fan of one of her earlier books--The Heroic Life of Al Capsella.

Well, that manuscript isn't printing itself, which means I have to go.

Strike a Blow Against the Establishment! Read a YA Novel!

They're still talking at my usual on-line hang-outs about The Problem with "Problem" Young-Adult Fiction by Ann Hulbert in Slate. In her essay, Hulbert objects to the use of "problem novels" in high school classes where she claims they are used to initiate discussion of issues rather than discussion of literature. A good thing, too, because according to her the themes are superficial, the symbols trite, and the characters are two-dimensional.

Now, remember, I'm not too fond of so-called problem novels, myself. However, just like Barbara Feinberg's Lizard Motel, which I discussed to death earlier, Hulbert's essay isn't particularly well written. It drifts from problem books, to teacher guides, to a couple who have written a book that Hulbert describes a "cure," though she's not real clear as to what this cure is for--problem books, which is what the essay is supposed to be about? Teaching English? Encouraging reading?

Why is it that the people who want to write on this issue can't seem to pull their acts together?

What I'm finding incredibly interesting about this is that at one of the on-line forums I visit there is a lot of talk supporting getting YA books out of the classrooms because kids need time to study classics. These people are writers and readers, and they are actually disparaging an established genre. What bothers me about this attitude (besides the elitism) is that while classics can be enjoyable to read, many of them don't exactly speak to twenty-first century teenagers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know classic, great literature is timeless. Go tell a seventeen-year-old who's just been handed a copy of Moby Dick.

My feeling about reading (and I suspect I'm alone on this) is that we read to connect with others like ourselves--authors, their characters--or even a situation. We want to connect with someone like ourselves or someone we want to be like. And when young adult literature is never promoted to teenagers, when it is actively looked down upon, a very clear message is being sent to those young readers. They and their interests have no value.

Hmmm. Could this be why reading is plunging as an activity for the young?

And while we're at it, there's another aspect about this that bothers me. I was told by a college professor a few years ago (who may or may not have known what he was talking about) that before the end of the nineteenth century literature wasn't taught in schools. "English literature" was brought in to the public schools to help assimilate the children of immigrants, to teach them to value what the WASP power structure valued--the anglo-American way of life and literature.

Now, I'm only two generations removed from immigrants. My father, uncle, and aunts couldn't speak English when they started grade school. This indoctrination was aimed at my kind. And that's how I see this whole "teach the classics" feeling--it's a movement to indoctrinate the young, this time into the adult, narrow, college-educated world.

Fight it, kiddos! Read a YA novel! Read a couple! It's a new genre, only thirty some-odd years old. It hasn't been accepted by the grown-ups yet. It's new, and it's yours. Sure, some of it stinks. But, you know what? Some adult literature stinks, too. So do some of the classics. Don't let that bother you. Seek out the best of your genre and enjoy it. Don't let the man tell you what to read.

I'm Seriously Underwhelmed

I've seen the first two episodes of Veronica Mars, and I must ask, "Just what is the big deal?" Kristen Bell is marvelous in the title role, and I'm definitely a fan of Enrico Colantoni. Jason Dohring is really creepy as the creepy kid. But the characters are all so...well, typical high school story characters. Except for Weevil, a skin-head motorcyle type who seems a little over the top.

By the way, I'm talking about this here because the creator of the show is Rob Thomas, who has written a a few YA novels.

I think the problem with Veronica is the similar to the problem I found with Looking for Alaska--just another high school story. Perhaps that's the problem with writing about high school. High school never changes. So many generations have lived through it that it just seems like a real-life cliche.

Veronica has frequently been compared to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Can you believe I can't find an official site for that show? Though you can buy all kinds of Buffy junk at Joss Whedon's weblog. I think Veronica is more like a twenty-first century angst-ridden Nancy Drew.

I think Buffy worked well because the show took all the high school cliches--popular girl, nerdy girl, jerky guy, mean girl--and combined them with vampires. You have to take cliches and shake them up with something different to make them tolerable. Perhaps a high school story in outer space would work. You have to do something different with it so viewers won't feel that they've seen all this before.

For me, Veronica Mars doesn't do it.

In all fairness, here is another opinion. You'll find it in the June 15 post in the blog A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy. This is a new blog, only three months old, on books with a lot of Buffy thrown in.