Tag: ya lit
When I started my position at my library, I made a list of our top-circing YA titles and started reading the ones I hadn’t already read so I’d be familiar with what my new patrons especially enjoyed. Every single Pretty Little Liars book was on that list, so I checked out the first one and started reading, expecting some sort of Gossip Girls readalike. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there was actually a mystery driving the story, which was also spurred along with plenty of danger and suspense, and was left desperate to read the next installation after I finished the first (with its cliffhanger ending!) while on a plane ride. (I eventually finished the first four books but haven’t read the second four as one of my most voracious YA readers told me that they definitely weren’t as good.)
Anyway, as I was reading, I started noticing that a lot of characters had a heart-shaped face. Like, a suspiciously high number–and the shape of those characters’ faces was occasionally mentioned more than once in the same book. After I noticed this, I couldn’t stop noticing it. Suddenly lots of books I was reading had characters with heart-shaped faces! They were everywhere!
I suspect characters in books like the Pretty Little Liars series have heart-shaped faces because it sounds romantic (although a wide forehead, broad jaw, and pointy chin don’t sound quite as romantic to me–it’s definitely a rose that loses some of its sweetness with a different name!). But it’s gotten me thinking about the other physical descriptions that keep cropping up in what I read. By the end of the Twilight saga, I thought I might lose it if another character raised or arched an eyebrow (I mean SERIOUSLY). When I read I Am Number Four this winter, I was puzzled by how frequently a character was described as having dried spit or spittle caked in the corners of their mouth. I mean… why that particular visual characteristic? And why was it present on so many people? Was it supposed to be a comment on their hygiene or something? Why was it happening–and being brought to my attention–so often?
Although the arched eyebrow and spittle-caked corners of mouths seem to be pretty particular to Twilight and I Am Number Four respectively, I still find myself noting to friends whenever I come across a heart-shaped face (the specific way of drawing attention to it, if you must know, is to tweet “woop woop heart-shaped face alert!”), and some of those friends have started to mention such faces to me when they find them in their own reading. (One friend–thanks Kristen!) described Gone With the Wind as “lousy with heart-shaped faces,” but noted that it’s actually used as an insult when Scarlett’s describing how much she hates Melanie–certainly no romance there!)
The heart-shaped face has become so much a representative of this kind of thing that my mental shorthand for specific, recurring phrases or physical descriptions that crop up more often than you’d expect in a particular series or title has just become “heart-shaped face.” Arched eyebrows are the heart-shaped face of the Twilight saga! Spittle-caked corners of mouths are the heart-shaped face of I Am Number Four! Now that I’ve noticed heart-shaped face equivalents in a couple of books and series, I can’t stop noticing them in other books–and they seem to stand out even more in audiobooks. I think I’m doomed to have them ruin what I read forever.
Are you the same way, readers? What is your heart-shaped face alert?
Edit: in the comments, Amanda shares that Slate ran a piece related to this last summer, in which Rosecrans Baldwin explores the numerous references to a dog barking in literature. Cthulhu Chick also recently posted about Lovecraft’s favorite words (h/t Brent, via Google Reader).
March 5, 2011
I Am Number Four
Author: Pittacus Lore
Publisher: Harper (an imprint of HarperCollins)
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9780061969553
Publication date: 3 August 2010
Review book source: my own copy
Summary
From the jacket flap: Nine of us came here We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books–but we are real.
Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.
But they know.
They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They killed them all. I am Number Four. I am next.
My thoughts
I thought I was going to like this book. At least, I thought I was going to like this book when I saw it in a book store and remembered reading some favorable reviews and purchased it; after I learned that it was a product of James Frey’s YA lit book packager, I was more skeptical. I already owned it at that point, though, so I gave it a read. So I thought I was going to like this, but I didn’t. That’s not to say this book is objectively bad: I think it fulfills what it’s trying to do pretty well. It’s just that what it’s trying to do isn’t very interesting or skillful.
From the start, once I actually started flipping through the book, it just feels like it’s trying too hard. The cover with the super-intense tagline! The embossed symbol on the cover under the dust jacket! The printing on the edges of the pages that spell out “LORIEN LEGACIES”! The integration of a symbol on the spine into the QR code on the back jacket flap! The Lemony Snicket-like author photo and bio! The book being “written by” a character from the universe in the book! (Only the actual narration is done by the protagonist and not the character who is supposedly the author.) Each of those pieces might not have been so bad, but when you put it together, it just seemed like the marketing department threw everything but the kitchen sink onto the book in the hopes that it’d grab as many people as possible.
When you get to the actual content of the story, there’s not much new here. Giving aliens credit for humanity’s achievements, the idea that aliens are walking among us but look like us and pass for us every day and have secret superpowers, most elements of the plot (including the former cheerleader who was dating the quarterback and has now sworn off her former ways, vowing to be nice to everyone–including the new kid, of course!), the dumb name of the evil race out to kill everyone (Mogadorians? Really?) and the fact that every representative of that race is completely one-dimensionally pure evil, the way the ending just turned into a big aimless battle–not much here felt fresh or interesting or like someone wanted to create this world and tell this story. There’s nothing complex in who the Loric people are, in who the Mogadorians are, in their conflict.
The writing is also awkward and strange at time, especially in the inconsistent use of contractions. One short example from page 224:
“[...] I don’t even know if he is there.”
He nods. “Do you think he’s okay?”
It’s not that the writing is bad, just that it’s inconsistent and not very interesting–and both of those were really distracting for me.
However, for as much as I don’t like the packaging and think a lot of the ideas and tropes are too familiar and didn’t care for the writing, the plot is tight and moves quickly and is full of action. The bad guys are surprisingly sadistic. The charm that requires the Mogadorians to kill the Loric teens in the order of their numbers intensified things. The emergence of John’s abilities isn’t at all surprising, but it’s the stuff that action story dreams are made of.
This book feels exactly like an action movie that’s shiny and full of explosions on the surface but doesn’t have much going on underneath. But it does do the action movie thing very well. 2/5.
Bonus: a movie adaptation is due out next month. At least I know they’re not going to mangle the book in the adaptation.
January 11, 2011
Trickster’s Girl
Author: Hilari Bell
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Pages: 288
ISBN: 9780547196206
Publication date: 3 January 2011
Review book source: requested from publisher via NetGalley
Summary
From the publisher: In the year 2098 America isn’t so different from the USA of today. But, in a post-9/11 security-obssessed world, “secured” doesn’t just refer to borders between countries, it also refer to borders between states. Teenagers still think they know everything, but there is no cure for cancer, as Kelsa knows first-hand from watching her father die.
The night Kelsa buries her father, a boy appears. He claims magic is responsible for the health of Earth, but human damage disrupts its flow. The planet is dying.
Kelsa has the power to reverse the damage, but first she must accept that magic exists and see beyond her own pain in order to heal the planet.
My thoughts
The post-9/11 world of high security and the “humans ruined the earth” thing seemed like two separate messages trying to share a book. Having to worry about identification as they move across state borders an into Canada makes Kelsa and Raven’s quest more difficult, but there doesn’t seem to be a reason for these security precautions other than to throw up barriers as they try to heal the leys.
Futhermore, the plot gets a little wandery at times, the danger doesn’t feel consistent or real (the primary dangers come from border guards and a pack of bikers, but the bikers only appear when it’s necessary for the action to get a little injection of scariness), the mission to heal the leys isn’t focused enough, and oh man did the ending not clean up the mess Kelsa made throughout the book. (A sequel seems planned, but this feels more like one story stretched over two books rather than two whole and complete narratives.) Honestly, this book was kind of disappointing, especially since I’ve really liked other books Bell has written.
However, Raven’s characterization is strong; his personality is distinct and his secrecy and unusualness are intriguing. He felt different than a lot of the characters I’ve been encountering in YA lit recently–and I was really glad no romantic subplot developed between him and Kelsa.
But what really makes this book stand out is its incorporation of American Indian lore. I would have actually liked to have seen more of an exploration of the relationship between Raven and the other gods and all of the spirits and humanity over history. However, as much as Bell’s taken on American Indian spirituality lent this book its flavor, I can’t comment on the authenticity of its portrayal–but I’m hoping Debbie Reese will on American Indians in Children’s Literature.
Some serious flaws in structure and pacing and plot, but the inclusion of Indian spirits at least makes this stand out from other books with an environmental message. 2/5.
December 24, 2010
After library cuts, staff replaced by school children
Many school libraries still face budget cuts that mean reductions in library service. While I was still on the job hunt, I mentioned that one of my classmates had applied for a school librarian position that the district decided to instead fill with a volunteer, but here’s something that tops even that: Durham Elementary School in Tigard, Oregon replaced a salaried library assistant with school children volunteers.
Tigard-Tualatin eliminated Pasteris’ position this year, along with the district’s nine other elementary media assistants. The move saved $420,000, but keeping the libraries functioning without assistants has been a challenge.
“The hard part is finding out what are some things we just really have to stop doing,” Byrom Elementary Principal Rick Fraisse said.
District officials say there was little choice in the matter. If not the library assistants, something else would have been cut to deal with the district’s budget woes.
There are now no elementary school media assistants in this school district. And the libraries are not managing to operate normally without them: there are things they’ve had to stop doing–and that means providing services or materials. One school didn’t have morning announcements for a month because it’d been part of what the library assistant did! District officials may say there was little choice, but is the library really the least important thing, the best choice when it comes to cuts? If a school intends to educate its students, the library should be at the very heart of that, not an extra to cut as soon as there’s a budget shortfall. And no, you can’t replace library staff with volunteers and expect things to carry on smoothly like before.
![A white pin-on button with black text reading "The Worst Part of Censorship is [scribbled out]"](http://www.librarified.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/worst-part-of-censorship-button-150x150.jpg "worst part of censorship button")
Recent trends in book challenges
In further ugh-inducing news, USA Today recently covered trends in book challenges and bans across the country. While the total number of challenges (or those reported to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, at least) has been steady at 400-500 challenges per year for the last thirty years, those challenges are more often coming from organized groups rather than one offended individual (and I’d guess that means that there are fewer people actually reading the books they’re challenging and more people just acting on what some organization has told them). And, insanely enough, “[T]he American Library Association and other groups say they have seen a noticeable rise in complaints about literature used in honors or college-level courses.” College-level courses. I assume that means college-level courses in high school and not actual college courses; if I’m wrong, please let me know so I can go weep for the youth of today. I know parents want to protect their children for as long as they can, but if those kids are taking classes that they can use for college credit, I don’t think you can expect the content of the literature to be squeaky clean. Yikes.
Some neat library history
After those two depressing bits of news, how about some lighter library history? The week before last saw the birthday of Otis Hall Robinson (1835-1912), the man who put the holes in the catalog cards. Before this innovation, patrons would remove cards and then put them back out of order–or keep them for later reference. The University of Rochester Library (where Robinson worked) has a longer biography of the man.
The New York Society Library has made public its first charging ledger, which records checkouts from 1789 to 1792 and includes records of what prominent New Yorkers, members of Congress, and even the Vice President and President were borrowing at the time. You can search the ledger, see at what individual people were borrowing, and even look at digital scans of actual pages from the ledger.
When we were working on our community repository project last spring, the head of the genealogy center at the Eckhart Public Library discussed his thoughts on balancing privacy and access: he wanted to make as many things as open as possible, but some records–like library card registrations from generations ago that gave people’s names and addresses–remained closed indefinitely for privacy reasons. So while it’s fun to see what George Washington was reading, and it gives us a more nuanced view of the man who was our first President, and he’s been gone long enough that he and his descendants probably won’t care, I wonder if there’s a statute of limitations on privacy. Do we violate our professional principles when we open these records, even if the particular people involved are long dead? I’d say probably not, but it’s something we need to consider every time we open what would normally be closed records, no matter how interesting the contents of those records.
Get into the holiday spirit, library style
To get you in the Christmas spirit, check out this book-based “ghetto tree” and the larger tree Delta College (MI) librarian Jennean Kabat constructed out of books.
The tree is constituted predominantly by copies of publications such as Congressional Quarterly Almanac and The Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature.
Those books were chosen for a reason.
“We went into the collection and took a few of the books that aren’t used quite as often as others,” Kabat said.
That hasn’t stopped some students from giving the library staff a little good-natured grief.
“We’ve had some people come by and ask, ‘What if I need to use that book in the middle there?’ and we’ve said, ‘Too bad, you’ll have to wait until January,’” Kabat said, adding that her project reminds her of the nerve-racking game Jenga.
And more!
College Humor wonders what classic sci-fi stories would look like as children’s books. All five are great, but I think my favorite is The Very Deadly Bounty Hunter just for the sheer incongruity between the original book and College Humor’s take:
And finally, did you hear? The previously-capped-at-eight-books Pretty Little Liars series will be expanded by another four titles starting with Twisted in July. I’ve heard from other librarians that the dangerous divas/rich bitches/backstabbing beauties books are falling off in popularity among their patrons, but the Pretty Little Liars series and others like it are still going strong at my library, so I’m sure my patrons will be thrilled to see new material.
December 14, 2010
Enter the Zombie
Author: David Lubar
Publisher: Starscape (Tor)
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9780765323446
Publication date: 4 January 2011
Review book source: I requested an ARC from the publisher
Summary
From the publisher: When Mr. Murphy finds out that evil organization RABID is using a student academic and athletic competition to recruit agents, he asks Nathan, Abigail, and Mookie to form a team and enter the contest. Things go terribly wrong when Nathan’s nemesis, Rodney the bully, forms his own team to go up against Nathan. Soon Rodney and his pals start to notice some very odd things about Nathan. Will they discover Nathan’s secret and expose his zombie identity to the entire world?
My thoughts
The vivid, so-gross-it’s-great puke-and-farts scenes that gave the first four books their character make fewer appearances here as Nathan is confronted with the escalating peril of his life as a zombie. The stakes have never been higher as he himself becomes a part of the mission to destroy RABID, but he’s also realizing that BUM’s interest in him is as a tool and not a person. In fact, about two thirds of the way through the book, Nathan recognizes that while they helped harden his bones, BUM–and Mr Murphy–have no intention of helping him un-zombify himself. Nathan muses to Abigail, “I don’t think it will ever be enough. [...] There’ll always be more to do. I’ll be carrying out missions for them until I rot apart.” Nathan must decide if he’s willing to sacrifice himself and his life for the greater good–or if he has the right to live life as just a normal kid.
And while the gross-out bits are reduced mostly to a few choice emissions from Mookie, the real heart of the series–Nathan, Abigail, and Mookie working together to solve problems in their world and in their lives–beats strongly in this final installment. Abigail especially is in high form, tracking down a cure for Nathan, but it takes unique contributions from all three of the friends to advance in the Mind and Body competition. Abigail must draw on every ounce of her intelligence, Nathan’s got to push himself as hard as possible to do well in physical challenges without tipping anyone off to the source of his strength and endurance, and Mookie has to provide comic relief and encouragement at key points. More than in the first four books, teamwork and propping each other up in dire situations are what save our heroes.
And look! There’s an entire page wherein Abigail explains to Mookie that research without the Internet is totally possible:
“I haven’t found a single thing about the anima flower on the Internet,” Abigail said.
“That’s not good. So it isn’t real?” I was glad I hadn’t gotten my hopes up about a cure.
“I didn’t say that. Not everything is on the Internet. There are some books I can check. There are all sorts of old newspapers and magazines that aren’t on the Internet.”
“Then how can you search them?” I asked.
“They have indexes,” Abigail said.
“On the Internet?” Mookie asked.
“No, in other books,” Abigail said. “People did research before there was an Internet. And even before there were any computers at all. They looked things up. They found information. It will be fun. I’ll go to the county library after school tomorrow.”
It may be pandering (and Lubar’s mom was a school librarian), but c’mon, how can you not support a book that sneaks in some indoctrination into the “libraries are awesome” cult?
In Enter the Zombie, Lubar deftly wraps up the loose threads, persistent concerns, and primary conflicts he established through the first four books. While he faces off against RABID for a final time, Nathan’s also grappling with the responsibilities his unique abilities and involvement with BUM confer and whether or not he can find a balance between those responsibilities and his own life. After all, as much as Nathan wants to go back to a life of eating, sleeping, and not rotting apart, to abandon an exciting life of spying and destroying evil entirely would be such a disappointment.
Ending on a strong note, the Nathan Abercrombie series is a perfect mix of gross-out moments and slapstick humor, great spy work with a twist, and a good heart beneath it all. Highly recommended.
More reviews
No other reviews seem to be available at the time of this writing. Keep your eye on Goodreads for reviews to come after the book is published.
Bonus
Check out my interview with David about the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series.
Previously
My reviews of the first four books in the series, My Rotten Life, Dead Guy Spy, and Goop Soup and The Big Stink.
December 9, 2010
David Lubar was kind enough to let me interview him about Enter the Zombie, the fifth and final book in the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series. We talk about the book, the series, his writing, and how Nathan would do against a unicorn.
David on a jumbo screen at Coca Cola Park in Allentown, reading a story before a Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs baseball game
GK: Where did you get the idea for the Nathan Abercrombie series?
DL: My publisher, Kathleen Doherty, mentioned zombies to me back in November, 2007 when we were discussing series ideas. The idea intrigued me, but since then I’d be writing multiple books, I wanted to give it some thought before I plunged in. The next day, I was struck by the image of a zombie kid rolling his eye down a hall so he could spy on someone. That led me to think about all the ways a zombie kid could be a wonderful spy.
GK: Nathan’s a great protagonist, but it’s really the team of Nathan, Abigail, and Mookie that shines. How did Abigail and Mookie find their way into the story?
DL: They just showed up. I’ll often start writing, with a basic plot in mind, and see who comes to the party. I knew I’d need Abigail to set things in action, but I had no idea who she was when I put her at the pariah table in the cafeteria. Originally, I thought she’d just be a kid with a mad-scientist uncle. Then, I realized it would be so much more fun if she was the genius behind the disaster. Mookie was a gift from my imagination. It takes a special kind of kid to be best friends with a zombie. I love characters who hear not just a different drummer, but even a different chromatic scale.
THE BIG STINK, the fourth book in the Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie series
GK: Who did the cover art for the series? What were your first thoughts when you saw the cover for My Rotten Life?
DL: The covers are by Adam McCauley, who also illustrated the Wayside School books. It was love at first sight. I think the cover for book four, The Big Stink, is my favorite. But all of them are great, and the decapitation depicted on book five should pique the curiosity of anyone browsing the shelves. I put a framed copy of the first cover on the wall in front of me for inspiration while I wrote the rest of the series. Tor does an amazing job with covers. I’m well aware how important that is, and how fortunate I’ve been.
GK: How did you like writing a five-book series rather than a stand-alone novel or a collection of short stories? Were there specific enjoyments or challenges in doing so?
DL: I liked being able to start subsequent books with established characters. One thing I enjoyed was that this wasn’t a formula story with five variations. It was a complete narrative arc, though each book can stand alone. I guess one of the challenges was giving the reader enough backstory in the latter books. Probably the biggest challenge was that I have a busy travel schedule. I did a lot of writing in airports and hotels Another challenge is that anyone writing a series has to live with the world as it has been created. I can’t suddenly make a sibling appear or vanish. I can’t change a character’s height or eye color. But it’s okay to paint yourself into a corner when the corner is part of a fun house.
GK: What initially made you want to write for middle grade readers and teens? And why humor writing?
DL: When I started trying to sell short fiction in the 1970s, there were three viable markets – genre magazines, women’s magazines, and kid’s magazines. I felt qualified to submit to two out of three of those. My early sales were mostly for young readers or for the SF market. As for humor, that’s how my mind works. It’s a gift. And a curse.
GK: There are some pretty awesome gross-out scenes in this series, especially the bleachers that turn into a “fountain of puke.” What is it about farts and barf that’s so hilarious?
DL: I don’t know. I took a course in college on comedy in literature, and discovered that there is nothing less enjoyable or amusing than trying to analyze humor. On the other hand, maybe I can answer the question with a single word: schadenfreude (which is German for “my psychotherapist just soiled his pants”).
GK: Has your history as a game designer and programmer shaped how you write or what you write about?
DL: I don’t think it shapes how I write (except that I need to write lots of book so I can buy lots of video games), but it does color what I write. My characters are often gamers, and some of my horror stories involve games that have gone awry. One of Nathan’s early traumas in the book occurs because of his lack of gaming skill. This sweetly reverses when his rock-steady zombie hands and unblinking concentration allow him to master a variety of games.
GK: Because of his zombification, Nathan doesn’t need to eat or sleep, so he can stay up all night playing games, reading, and thinking through life’s problems. If you no longer required sleep, what would you do all night?
DL: I would play video games, read books, and maybe slink through the back alleys of my neighborhood dressed as Batman. Or Borat.
GK: Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier recently compiled Zombies vs Unicorns, an anthology of short stories that all seek to answer the question of which creature is better. Are you on Team Zombie? How do you think Nathan would do against a unicorn?
DL: Not well.
GK: And while I’m asking silly “this vs. that” questions: ninjas or pirates?
DL: Ninjas, for sure. The ninjas would give the pirates some rum. Then the ninjas would get the pirates to chase them across the water. Ninjas can run on water. Pirates can’t (though rum makes them think they can). Glub, glub – ninjas win.
GK: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions! And if I can have just one more for the road: now that Nathan’s story has drawn to a close, what are you working on next?
DL: You’re quite welcome. I enjoyed the questions. As for the final one, I’ve started a novel for middle grade kids. I’m aiming for something that’s both dark and funny, which is not a great departure from the norm for me, but I’m hoping for wider swings than usual. I’m also writing stories for a sixth Weenies collection. (The fifth, Attack of the Vampire Weenies, comes out in May.) No idea what the title story will be, yet, though I’m pretty sure it won’t involve unicorns.
December 9, 2010
Bright Young Things
Author: Anna Godbersen
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 389
ISBN: 9780061962660
Publication date: 12 October 2010
Review book source: my library
In 1929, Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey set out from their Ohio town for glittery New York City. Though the two friends escape their bleak Midwestern lives together, each has her own ambitions: Letty to become a famous actress and singer, and Cordelia to find her father. The story is occasionally difficult to swallow–Cordelia is too readily accepted by her father once she finds him–and it takes until nearly the end of the book to pick up. Godbersen’s narrative also follows a third person, society girl Astrid Donal, but Astrid’s disaffected languor sometimes translates to just being boring, and the three girls’ lives only fully intertwine in the last scene. However, there are plenty of parties, nights at speakeasies, and handsome young men, and the story ends with a stronger set-up for the sequel. This first book in a new series by Godbersen reveling in the last summer of the Jazz Age lacks the foreshadowing and urgency (and thus the hook) of her Luxe books, but fans of the kind of historical fiction that is a period piece, the setting a backdrop against which romances blossom and are cast aside, fortunes rise and fall, and the lives of bright young girls making their way in the world are lived will be waiting with bated breath for the next installment. 3/5.
Dark Parties
Author: Sara Grant
Publisher: Little, Brown
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780316085946
Publication date: 3 August 2011
Review book source: requested from publisher via NetGalley
Generations ago, Homeland closed its borders, sealing its citizens within the Protectosphere. In the years since, supplies have started running out and the limited gene pool has erased most physical differences between people. The government strictly controls everyone’s lives, and sometimes people go missing, leaving no trace behind. Neva and Sanna can’t stand living under that kind of control anymore, so to recruit others to their cause, they stage a Dark Party. But when Neva and Sanna begin their rebellion and the government lashes back at them, Neva thinks she may be on her own, and too deep to be saved. The title of Grant’s story is puzzling: there is only one dark party and while the book opens with it, its importance seems disconnected from the rest of what follows in Neva’s story. Some elements in Grant’s vision of the future are to be found in other dystopian stories–the protective dome over the country also appears in The Sky Inside and The Other Side of the Island, the missing citizens can be found in The Other Side of the Island, and the dwindling resources and need for recycling is prominent in The City Of Ember–but she does introduces new ideas (everyone looking the same from years of inbreeding, and there’s a disturbing twist at the end when Neva discovers that girls are exploited for their reproductive capabilities). Fans of dystopian lit will enjoy these new twists and another tale of government control gone too far, but Dark Parties fails to stand out from other offerings in the genre. 2/5.
December 1, 2010
All right, I promise this is my last post about YALSA’s 2010 YA Lit Symposium. Now that I’ve written all about each session I attended and had time to digest and discuss a little bit, I posted some final thoughts about themes that ran throughout all those sessions.
This symposium was a really great experience. I had a lot of fun, met some awesome people, and learned a lot. And oh man the author signing and happy hour on Saturday afternoon was so great! We each got a tote bag and five tickets and once the doors opened and we were let in, we were able to exchange each ticket for a signed copy of a book by the authors at the symposium. I walked away with copies of Looks by Madeline George, The Social Experiments of Dorie Dilts: The School for Cool by PG Kain, Ash by Malinda Lo, Girl Coming in for a Landing by April Halprin Wayland (and I got to tell her I love her picture books, too!), and Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can’t Have by Allen Zadoff. I wish I’d been able to get Christina Diaz Gonzales’s The Red Umbrella or Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray, but alas, the lines and the layout of the room and the number of tickets conspired against me. I really, really appreciated that we got time to talk to authors and get their books without having to pay for an additional event.
Anyway, since I’m going to be going to both Annual 2012 and Midwinter 2013, I’m not sure yet if I’ll be able to go to the third YA Lit Symposium in St Louis in 2012, but I so hope I can go. This was such a fantastic conference!
November 9, 2010
I attended the 2010 YA Lit Symposium in Albuquerque. This post is a summary of three of the sessions that I attended. Check out other posts tagged yalsalit2010 for more session recaps.
My notes for the other three sessions I attended aren’t as extensive, so I’m going to cover them all in one post. First up is my third Saturday session, “The New Gay Teen: Moving Beyond the ‘Issue’ Novel” with Alexandra Diaz, Madeline George, PG Kain, Carley Moore, Lauren Myracle, and Stephanie Hopkins.
Imagine that you’re just waking up and you realize your hands are tied. What’s happened over the last few hours is sort of hazy–you remember something about a fire and your friends. You don’t know where Robin is. And not only are your hands tied, you’re blindfolded, too. From the slight sway and the smell of the sea, you think you might be on a ship. Have you been captured by pirates? Will you have to fight them? Could you become a spy? You definitely remember a fire and pirates and maybe even space aliens–but none of that matters because you’re gay.
That’s how Alexandra started off this session and while it drew some laughs, it also drew attention to the way that stories with LGBTQIA characters are often focused on the character’s sexual identity or preferences as the primary conflict or issue in the story. In fact, Alexandra summed it all up really nicely when she said, “If [a character's sexuality] continues to be the issue, it will continue to be an issue.”
This session was mostly a panel discussion where authors read from some of their books with LGBTQIA characters and talked about the way sexual preferences and identity played out in their books and in YA lit in general. Madeline George’s reading from her upcoming novel (currently untitled, due out in spring 2012) about a butch lesbian who, through her relationship with two other young women, learns to go beyond identity politics had the audience nearly in tears with laughter and I am seriously dying to read it.
Some of the common ideas that emerged were that of ignorance, of the gap between teen’s experiences and their language for those experiences, and the desire of LGBTQIA teens to read stories that have LGBTQIA characters who do something other than wrestle with their sexual identity. We also got a fabulous booklist with LGBTQ titles in YA lit that I cannot find online. Does anyone have a link?
My final session on Saturday was “Images and Issues Beyond the Dominant: Including Diversity in Your Graphic Novel Collection.” This was a booklist-heavy session, but the sheer range of things we saw was fantastic. Graphic novels and manga can portray race and ethnicity, disability, and body shapes in a different way than prose or poetry can, and that makes some stories incredibly powerful. Again, we learned that readers are getting tired of “issue” stories and just want characters who are like them having interesting adventures.
Oh, and we were pointed to webcomics as the new frontier for library graphic novel/manga/comic collections. Some will never appear in print, so how do you make them available to your patrons?
Here’s a list of the fabulous titles we were shown.
And my final session of the symposium was on Sunday morning. I attended Melissa Rabey’s “Doomed to Repeat It: Diversity in Historical Fiction” with authors Christina Diaz Gonzales and Ruta Sepetys. Melissa identified diversity in historical fiction as telling the stories of lesser-known cultures and civilizations, considering famous events from alternate perspectives, and looking at a group’s past beyond the events most associated with that group (so that not every historical fiction story about a Jewish character takes place during the Holocaust). In general, there’s been a slow improvement in the range of explored culture, and some groups have received fuller treatment than others.
Melissa then shared with us a bunch of interesting titles and concluded with what we need to see with diversity in historical fiction (Hispanic historical fiction set in the US; stories from Africa, South America, and the Middle East; and fresh takes and recent history) and what she sees coming up (mashups between historical fiction and other genres and blending historical fiction with current trends like paranormal elements), but left open the question of where diversity fits.
This session ended with a really awesome author panel. Christina Diaz Gonzales recently wrote The Red Umbrella, which is about a fourteen-year-old girl who travels from Cuba to the US in 1961 as part of Operation Pedro Pan and is based on her parents’ story. Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray comes out in March and tells the story of a fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941 whose family is sent to Siberia during Stalin’s “cleansing” of the Baltic region.
They both talked about the research they did, the importance of authenticity, and why historical fiction matters. Ruta had a very difficult time getting survivors to tell her their stories since they fear repercussion (the Balkans only got their independence in the ’90s, so stories are still emerging), and as part of her research, she participated in a simulation of what it was like in a gulag during which she was beaten and wound up rupturing two discs in her back and going home in a wheelchair. She was shocked by how quickly she put aside her values in the interest of self preservation. (You can see her and videos of survivors at the official site for the book.) But at the end, she said that by sharing history with teens through fiction we can try to create a more just future. On the role and importance of historical fiction, Christina said, “Teens want a good story. If it also teaches them about history or their own families’ history, that’s our goal.” She also pointed out that authors tell the stories that are in their hearts, but they have to be told authentically. If authors don’t have a personal connection to a culture, they need to do their research.
Melissa kindly made her booklist and other resources available.
November 8, 2010
I attended the 2010 YA Lit Symposium in Albuquerque. This post is a summary of one of the sessions that I attended. Check out other posts tagged yalsalit2010 for more session recaps.
The second session I attended on Saturday morning was “Beyond Good Intentions and Chicken Soup: Young Adult Literature and Disability Diversity: How Far Have We Come?” with Dr. Heather Garrison, Dr. Katherine Schneider (founder of the Schneider Family Book Award!), and author Terry Trueman.
This was another really outstanding session. The speakers opened with an explanation of disability as a social construct (it’s society that disables people by not providing allowances and through the perception of others) and a short examination of different models of disability, including the medical model (there is something wrong with people with disabilities’ bodies), the moral model (there is something wrong with or shameful about people with disabilities), and the minority model (disability sets someone apart, but it’s something one can be proud of and that person can lead a full life).
With a bit of a theoretical groundwork, they next talked about the importance of the depiction of disability in literature. Since 20-30% of the population has a disability, it’s not something that we can ignore or not address. Positive depictions of people with disabilities counteract Othering, and reading stories about characters with disabilities may be a reader’s first exposure to disability. (Making this point later, Terry Trueman said that he hoped that after someone read his book Stuck in Neutral, they might see someone with cerebral palsy and think, “Maybe that person is like Shawn, which means that maybe that person is like me.”). Futhermore, seeing characters with disabilities means that people with disabilities are worth writing about. Characters with disabilities can be leaders, have girlfriends, and go on adventures–they’re more than just their disability. And finally, having characters with disabilities in good stories provides positive role models for people with disabilities.
We find a lot of stereotypes of people with disabilities in literature, many of them contradictory. For example, characters with disabilities are either asexual or hypersexual, victims or vengeful, infantile or “supercrips” with powers beyond that of “normal” people. We see a lot of this especially in classic literature, and we were encouraged to instead of glossing over a character’s disability, to address the potentially problematic depiction of that disability and how the disability was perceived during the time in which the book was written. We shouldn’t ignore problematic depictions of disability, but should instead use them as a chance to discuss and education.
When we’re evaluating books that include a character with disabilities, we should consider:
- Awards like the Schneider Family Book Award or the recently revived Dolly Gray Award
- Attitudes: are the characters with disabilities equally active but not a super-person? Are they accepted without having to overcome their disabilities or prove themselves?
- Accuracy: what are the credentials of the author (including personal experience)? Is accurate information given in a variety of settings? Are equipment, accommodations, adaptations, and support all depicted correctly?
- Appeal
- Accessibility
If you’re reviewing a book that includes mention of a disability and you’re not sure if the depiction is accurate, ask someone with that disability. The slogan “nothing about us without us” is helpful here–people with particular disabilities are the best authority on that disability because of their lived experience. You can also pair potentially problematic books with a memoir by someone who also has that particular disability.
There was also a great list of what is and isn’t available in both nonfiction and fiction:
- Available in nonfiction: “living with…” books about particular disabilities, books about sibling issues and self-esteem issues, and biographies and autobiographies
- Not widely available in nonfiction: books about sex, jobs, manners, histories, Daring Book for Girls-style books, and “and” books address disability and race or class or gender
- Available in fiction: relationships, drugs, alcohol, sex, school issues, teen community, and books in both realistic and sci-fi settings
- Not widely available in fiction: the transition to college, historical fiction, intersection with other identities (e.g., LGBTQIA, poverty, teen parenting, race/ethnicity, religion)
Finally, we were asked how our libraries do with accessibility. Can people with disabilities use your website and electronic products? Can they attend your programs? What are staff attitudes like? And are our conferences accessible to people with disabilities? This was the only session I attended that had large print handouts and discs with the handouts in formats that assisting devices for the visually disabled can read.
Dr Garrison kindly sent me handouts from this presentation; I’ve uploaded them so everyone else can access them, too.
November 8, 2010
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