Where's The Dancing Candlestick?

Last week, we were talking about fairy tales (or I was, anyway), which was far more appropriate than any of you knew because last week I also read Beastly by Alex Finn. Beastly is a modern take on Beauty and the Beast with the beast starting out as a stereotypical, handsome teen s.o.b. who is turned into a beast as punishment for being a stereotypical, handsome teen s.o.b..

Beastly is a very interesting book because it's filled with stereotypical characters, and, as I said, it's Beauty and the Beast. If you know the story--and presumably readers are expected to, since the book includes "Ever wonder what it was like for the Beast?" on the cover--you know what's going to happen. And, yet, it's an engaging read. If nothing else, you can have fun trying to figure out the fairy tale references. And while poor old Kyle, prebeast, is a stereotypically awful teen stud, he does end up getting more sympathetic treatment here than his type usually does in YA novels. Or anywhere else, for that matter. (Dairy Queen and its sequel also provides us with a more rounded teen heartbreaker.)

Someone at one of my listservs brought to our attention that Beastly is going to be a movie. Mary-Kate Olsen has joined the cast (as the witch, I've heard), as has Neil Patrick Harris (as the tutor, according to my source). Hey, we hear everything first on the kidlit listservs!

If you like these modern interpretations of fairy tales, you can check out a whole page of modern versions of Beauty and the Beast.

Training Report: Two segments! Essay work! E-mails! Research!

While We're On The Subject Of Reviews

In the past, some of the main review journals directed their reviews toward professionals--librarians, for the most part, who were looking for information on books they might want to add to their collections. That's why some reviews included what most of us would consider spoilers. The reviews didn't spoil the books for the librarians, who couldn't possibly read all the books they needed to know about, anyway, but did give them information that helped them make purchasing decisions.

Library Journal has announced a change in its review policy. "The librarian-centric focus no longer makes sense in an electronic environment where our reviews appear in online catalogs and other resources that patrons use to find titles, place holds or make purchases, or even add their own comments. In the last few issues of LJ, we've begun to direct our assessment mainly toward the reader."

They've also introduced "a self-contained "Verdict" at the end of the review that sends the reader right to the reviewer's opinion." This "Verdict" aspect of the reviews, the Library Journal review editors believe, will make reviews more '"twitterable."' (To quote their quotation mark-emphasized word.)

So...how long has Twitter been around? Is it really so well established in our culture that it's time to be designing other media around it?

Link from the child_lit listserv.

The End of "Negative" And "Positive"

I was nearly bowled over by an idea this morning while I was in the shower. Unfortunately, it wasn't related to my writing. It was related to a discussion Melissa Wiley and I had at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy. We sort of highjacked one of Liz's posts to talk about book reviews, book recommendations, book analysis, and other related topics.

At one point I mentioned that I disliked using the terms "negative" and "positive" to describe reviews. I don't believe a thoughtful discussion of a book's pros and cons is "negative." My only complaint about the use of the words "positive review" is that I think it suggests that there are also negative ones out there lurking about.

What happened this morning was that I came up with something to replace them with--analytical response and recommendation. That's it. That's all I'm going to be saying here.

Notice I'm even avoiding using the word "review." For one thing, I think it's very loaded right now. People feel too emotional about it. For another, I always worry that reviews are some special kind of writing (which I think is the case with true criticism) that I know next to nothing about. I'm much more comfortable with "response."

What A Neat Idea

Here in the United States, we wonder if teenagers will be able to read Octavian Nothing. In England, a "shadow panel" of teenagers read the Orange prize longlist and came up with its own short list and winner.

"The "shadow" panel of teenage judges was set up to help a younger audience engage with the prize."

A great idea--encouraging young people to get involved with contemporary adult literature.

This Makes Fairy Tales A Little More Interesting

Gauthiers are not fairy tale people. I can recall reading a fairy tale or two in my basal readers when I was a kid and actually liking them, and I have some twisted knowledge of Disney's versions of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty from the Little Golden Books I found under the Christmas tree when I was in first or second grade. But we were farmers and millworkers, Jim! We didn't do that fairy stuff.

As an adult, I can take fairy tales or leave them. What I do enjoy is hearing about obscure battles in isolated fields of study. So two articles discussing a book denying the oral tradition of fairy tales were of interest to me. You, too, may find Scholar Denies Oral Roots of Fairy Tales and From 'Once Upon a Time' to 'Happily Ever After' of interest.

The second article uses the term panto, as in "Audiences of both genders, all ages, and all classes enjoyed panto..."

I thought, Hmmm. Where have I heard that word? Then I remembered--one of the episodes from the first season of Clatterford involved the townfolks putting on a panto.

Which just goes to show, my little lads and lasses, that television is broadening, n'est-ce pas?

Training Report: Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Worked on that essay you may never see. Did one segment for the 365 Story Project, started two more, and planned a third. Plus I have another blog at Amazon, and I had to do some work over there because they've done some kind of renovation. And, finally, family matters having shifted a bit for the weekend, I have a prayer...a prayer...of being able to do a little work on Saturday or Sunday. I'm feeling as if flow is hovering very, very nearby.

Some Horn Book Highlights

The kidlitosphere is full of reports on trips to BEA. I didn't go to BEA. I read the new issue of The Horn Book.

THB carried a big feature by Linda Sue Park called Still Hot: Great Food Moments in Children's Literature. There were a number of short pieces by other authors on reading and food. My favorite was the one by Peter Sis in which he talks about eating in a park with friends while reading The Three Musketeers out loud. I was taken with it because it was so totally alien to my own teenage experience. It's only a modest exaggeration to say that most of the people I knew when I was a teenager thought The Three Musketeers was a candy bar. (One I used to really like.) So reading Sis's food memoir was like reading about something that happened in a foreign country. Wait! It was something that happened in a foreign country!

Debby Dahl Edwardson's article Reading Under the Midnight Sun: Implications of Worldview had nothing to do with food, but was terrific nonetheless.

Okay, reviews. There were a number that caught my eye.

Jacqueline Davies' book Tricking the Tallyman is set in Tunbridge, Vermont in 1790. I've never been to Tunbridge, but when I was a young'un the place was famous for its World's Fair, which had a reputation for being a lot of fun. Tricking the Tallyman isn't about the fair, but I did notice it. And now you won't forget it, either, will you?

I've never read anything by Caroline B. Cooney, but her If the Witness Lied sounds interesting. Could it have a little Jon and Kate thing going?

I don't think of Norwegians as being particularly funny (not like those Danes!), but Klaus Hagerup's Markus and the Girls could be entertaining.

Brian James's The Heights is supposed to be a reworking of Wuthering Heights.

Starclimber! Kenneth Oppel!

Tamora Pierce has another Beka Cooper book out.

I still haven't read Kate Thompson's The New Policeman, and now I see she has a new book out, Creature of the Night, which THB reviewer calls a "gritty crime thriller." Gritty. I like gritty.

Graduate School Stuff

No, I'm not thinking about trying to get a graduate school to accept me any longer. If I don't think I can tolerate a week-long writers' conference, how could I even consider a graduate program? Come on, they last much, much longer than a week, right? Nobody offers a degree after three hours, which is my time limit for just about everything.

What I am doing is directing you to a Finding Wonderland post on the subject of graduate writing programs, which was inspired by Show or Tell: Should Creative Writing Be Taught? in The New Yorker.

I really did read the whole thing last night. It took a long time, but not three hours, so that's okay.

Not A Bad Sequel, But Still...

I am a big fan of Catherine Gilbert Murdock's Dairy Queen. I wasn't that excited when I heard there was going to be a sequel, though. Dairy Queen seemed so complete. What more was there to say?

The Off Season still has D.J. Schwenk's marvelous voice. But the story seems a lot less focused this time around. D.J. just seems to be going from thing to thing here. While an argument can be made that that's life, I missed the narrative drive of the first novel.

This isn't a bad book, by any means. D.J.'s fans will still enjoy it. It's just not Dairy Queen.

According to the author's website, a third D.J. book is in the works.

Training Report: Not my worst day. Worked on an essay and did two 365 Story Project segments. I felt as if I was beginning to get into a flow-like thing, but it will be shot tomorrow when I am back to doing good works.

I'm not very good at doing good works. It's a struggle, let me tell you.

Revision

I found this post on Revision thanks to the Kidlitosphere listserv. It looks so meaty that I plan to go through it when I can give it an hour.

In fact, the blog it comes from, the SCBWI Tri-Regions of Southern California Schmooze, looks extremely interesting. It reports on the activities of a number of children's writer and illustrator groups in Southern California.

Training Report: Glad things went so well yesterday, because today ended up being all about spreading cheer and good will. Well, that and getting my butt whipped by a pre-teen girl who is seven ranks lower than I am. She's faster than I am and has more endurance than I do. But I outweigh her. I've got that going for me, anyway.

Coming Up This Week

Oz and Ends is beginning a week of posts on publishing. J.L. Bell begins with POD Overtakes Regular Printing.

Training Report: I was just beginning to get into some kind of flow last Friday after what was for me a very long Memorial Day Weekend. In spite of another weekend off, today went pretty well. I revised two segments for the 365 Story Project and came up with two new ones. And I looked over the two essays I'm working on. Can't complain. Well, I can always complain. But I won't.

For those of you who like a little feedback with your training reports, Anastasia Suen is starting an accountability/mentoring group.