In this edition of YA Wednesday, we make it easy for you to find banned books, talk about a revolution, and continue our obsession with the Twilight debates.
How do you get teens to read a book? Ban it. The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) and the American Library Association (ALA) launched a Banned Books Week website this week. Censorship is no laughing matter, but it still cracks me up that the people who work so hard to ban books don't seem to get how much banning helps a book. During Banned Books Week (September 27 - October 4) bookstores and librarians will display these books, and bloggers will list them and link to them for people to buy--while all the lonely non-banned titles sit on the shelves, wishing they were just a little more controversial.
So, I'm doing my part now for the continued success of the following books, YA and adult titles for teens among the 10 most challenged in 2007:
You can see the full list with the reasons for the bans, plus more stats from 1990-2007, on the ALA website. (Reported yesterday by SLJ)
What I'm Reading Now: The Revolution of Sabine Beth Levine Ain's The Revolution of Sabine came to me just at the right time. I watched HBO's John Adams a couple of weeks ago, devouring the whole series DVD-style in a couple of days--so I'm pretty into Ben Franklin and powdered wigs. It's a great idea: what better setting for a rebellious teen than an actual revolution? (Sabine is from a French aristocratic family in the 1770s.) The early scenes have a slight Edith Wharton-like sensibility, with strict fashion rules and an overbearing, social-climbing mother who is devastated when Ben Franklin fails to show up at her ball: "How will they manage to run a whole country when their leaders behave this way?"
Quick links... ALAN (Assembly for Literature of Adolescents) has posted a preliminary schedule for their 2008 ALAN Workshop, coming up in November. With titles like "Gods, Foods, and Tattoos: The Mixed Mythos of Urban Fantasy" and "Advice for the Lovelorn: Dating Faux Pas and Successes in Young Adult Literature," it looks pretty intriguing.
Yesterday, Alison Morris on PW's ShelfTalker blog linked to Flux ("A new imprint dedicated to fiction for
teens"), complimenting them on their teen-friendly covers. Then Flux linked to ShelfTalker complimenting Alison Morris on her "awesome post." Ah, blog love.
In the Salt Lake Tribune, columnist Rebecca Walsh talks about how Breaking Dawn author Stephenie Meyer is now getting it from all sides (with one LDS blogger even calling for her to be excommunicated). Walsh's take? Lighten up, people. --Heidi
In this week's roundup, I'm filling in for Paul as we go back to the UK for more controversy and demonstrate our uber-Ameri-sentimentality about Lady Liberty and something all kids love--play!
No naughtiness at Random House On Thursday, the Guardian reported that Random House was removing the word "twat" from Jacqueline Wilson's boarding school book for 10+ year-olds, My Sister Jodie. Because of three complaints, the publisher and author have decided on a less offensive replacement:
"The word 'twat' was used in context. It was meant to be a nasty
word on purpose, because this is a nasty character," said a
spokesperson for Random House. "However, Jacqueline doesn't want to
offend her readers or her readers' parents, so when the book comes to
be reprinted the word will be replaced with twit."
Amazon.uk has a charming video of Wilson talking about the book. Could this lady possibly be offensive? Please!
Even Americans aren't this gooey I still haven't seen Meghan McCain's picture book, My Dad, John McCain, but these words from Derek Draper in the Guardian don't necessarily inspire me to pick it up:
It's easy for us Brits to assume that such sentimental spin will backfire but, having lived in the US for three years, I can assure you that Americans are made of gooier stuff. There, a commitment to "family values" isn't seen as a devalued political soundbite but the sine qua non of a politician's suitability for office.
Where did Draper live in America? I don't think it was Seattle. (found via Read Roger's "Fighting Words..." post)
O.K., well, we are gooey about our national landmarks A Patchwork of Books posted a review last Monday of Lady Liberty, by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Matt Tavares--one of my favorite picture books of the year.
One thing I loved about this book, besides seeing the whole history
of how the statue was conceived and built, was learning about how it
was paid for. Basically, when sculptor Auguste Bartholdi visited the U.S. "everyone was polite and seemed interested. But no one offered to raise money to build her." So they got donations from French citizens to help build
the statue, then Joseph Pulitzer asked his readers to chip in with the
donations for the base (including one girl who sent her two pet roosters).
And we're not alone in loving the book. It got starred reviews from Booklist and The Horn Book. Here are a few more reviews from earlier this year:
It's time to play! Speaking of I.N.K., contributor Anna M. Lewis posted Friday about her favorite book of the summer, The Case for Make Believe by Susan Linn, a book that's also been a favorite at our house, especially as we've watched 16-mo-old Silas begin to make up games of his own.
In this edition of YA Wednesday, Heidi is taking a break while I root around for noteworthy YA news (but watch for her this weekend, when she compiles the End-o'-the-Week Kid-Lit Roundup).
"Young Adult" classification possibly good; also, possibly bad. Science-fiction site io9 has a couple of essays up on YA SF, pro and con. ("Young Adult Books Will Save Science Fiction" and "Stop Writing Young Adult Science Fiction", respectively.) Kid-lit cognoscente Colleen Mondor calls them "two of the silliest pieces I have read on YA literature in ages." Take that! You've got to love her advice: "Here's an idea - why doesn't everyone just grow up and stop talking about this and let teens read what they want; whether a publisher designates it YA or not. (And really, that is what they are quite happily doing anyway.)"
Violence! Swears! Kids' book awards!. Elsewhere in the world of controversy, we found out from achockablog that Matt Ottley's Requiem for a Beast was named the Children's Book Council of Australia's "Picture Book of the Year"--despite having swears and "illustrations of a bloody axe," among other things. By many accounts, the book--explicitly intended for "adults and young adults"--is dark, complex, and also fairly awesome. But one former Book Council president isn't happy: "I really have a problem with this book. It shouldn't be on the shortlist, let alone win."
Advice from college guys for high school guys. Guys Lit Wire is a great site for teen guys--or anyone who recommends books to teen guys--to find new ideas on what to read. (You can even find ideas from me there from time to time.) Kelly Herold's "Higher Learning" interviews are especially good, in which "college guys talk about what they're reading, what they read in high school, and what books are important to them now." She just posted her third, with Ben, a second-year student at Grinnell College, who cut his teeth on the likes of Lois Lowry's The Giver and Jack London's Martin Eden.
Show your librarian some love! Okay, this isn't specific to YA, but everyone should know that nominations just opened last Friday for the "I Love My Librarian!" awards....
The summer musical sensation Camp Rock releases today and we've got some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of the teen heartthrobs, The Jonas Brothers, tellings us what it takes to be a rock star.
Both the DVD and Blu-ray version release today -- Angela
In this week's roundup, we find some help for first-time school-goers, visit the intersection of kid lit and tattoos, and get some free Daniel Pinkwater:
"Back to school, for the first time." How do you help new preschoolers and kindergartners prepare for their first big day of capital-S School? The latest Horn Book newsletter has some great tips, including several recommendations for books that will help kids know what to expect--like Wow! School! and Kindergarten Rocks!. Read the newsletter for even more titles and ideas.
Tattoos, kids, tattoos involving kids' books, kids' books involving tattoos, etc. Can we all agree that tattoos have finally, irrevocably, resoundingly become mainstream? 100 Scope Notes compiles the "colliding worlds" story of tattoos and kid lit, with links to a kids' book about parental tattoos, cool librarian temp tattoos (e.g., "Literate 4 Life" and "Read or Die"), a beautiful Matilda tat, and more. I think this full-color Giving Tree tattoo was my favorite, just for sheer commitment to the bit:
Daniel Pinkwater's Yggyssey, serialized free online. If you followed the zany journey of Nedworth Wentworthstein in the Neddiad, you won't want to miss the Yggyssey--the Neddiad told from the point of view of Ned's friend, Iggy. Pinkwater is putting the Yggyssey online in serial form, with a new chapter every Monday. You can already read all the way up to Chapter 17 (how did I miss this?), and you can even download an mp3 of him reading the first chapter. (Found via Bookshelves of Doom.)
Science-fiction roundup for kids and teens. Amanda Craig of the London Times just pulled together an excellent roundup of the "dazzling results" of relatively recent SF efforts for children and teenagers--including the particularly creepy-sounding Unwind:
Unwind imagines a society in which parents who get fed up with their children can sign them up, secretly, to be “unwound” at 13: that is, taken away to have every part of them, from eyes to skin, donated to others. The decision to “abort retrospectively” is irrevocable, and when the clever, rebellious Connor discovers his fate, he plots his escape.
This is the kind of rare book that makes the hairs on your neck rise up. It is written with a sense of drama that should get it instantly snapped up for film, and it's satisfyingly unpredictable in that its characters change and realise things about each other in a credible way. Enforced organ donation isn't a new idea, but Unwind has the kind of anger that will appeal to teenagers.
New Fuse #8 podcast. Elizabeth Bird procrastinates funnily in another "children's literary" podcast, talking about the Bloodhound Gang's secret Newbery-winning writer, the Twilight backlash (and the Twilight backlash backlash), and the "WORLD PODCAST PREMIER" of The Effin G's song "Randolph Caldecott." She also has two fun "booktalks," on King George: What Was His Problem? and The Cabinet of Wonders (Book 1 of the Kronos Chronicles). --Paul
Vexing news for Harry Potter fans! Just arrived in my inbox is a press release that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is going to hit theaters on July 17, 2009, not November 21, 2008 as originally scheduled. In the press release, Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer, Warner Bros., says, "Our reasons for shifting Half-Blood Prince to summer are twofold: we know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment. Additionally, like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films—changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of. We agreed the best strategy was to move Half-Blood Prince to July, where it perfectly fills the gap for a major tent pole release for mid-summer." There's no announcement yet on the Harry Potter site, but their trailer page does show "In Theaters July 17, 2009." --David
In this edition of YA Wednesday, we walk the blurry lines between kids and YA, and YA and grown-ups.
The Kids want YA: What's a librarian to do? Last week, Publisher's Weekly kicked off a new column, Talkback, with kid-lit opinion pieces submitted by readers. In
"My Say: When YA Books May not be OK," a children's librarian explains
her process of interviewing too-young children who ask about YA titles, to make
sure they're ready for the YA room:
"In recent years, the trend in YA fiction has been toward a
proliferation of darker, edgier fare, aimed at a more mature audience.
As a result, I don’t ever send younger kids to browse “over there”
unaccompanied. It feels too much like throwing them into the deep end
of the pool."
Roger Sutton questions her tactics, and wonders if they even work:
"What
we don't know from the essay is how easily kids are allowed to dodge
the librarian's best intentions entirely and simply go to the YA or
adult books by themselves. That would have been my own strategy as a
sixth-grader, particularly if I had had a previous encounter with a
librarian that made me feel snooped upon or deflected."
The bright lights of Beijing
If watching synchronized diving, impossible gymnastics contortions, and cross-country biking in the rain inspires you (to contort or dive or... read!), check out School Library Journal's YA-recommended list (posted in early summer) of books by or about Olympic champions including:
Letters to a Young Gymnast by Nadia Comaneci. (Was there any girl in the 70s who didn't want to be Nadia Comaneci, the first perfect 10?)
(The video here is Beijing Welcomes You, a music-video-style promotion with welcoming messages: "Flowing charms are filled with vigor and enthusiasm." I also highly recommend Stand up, a history of China's Olympic teams, sung primarily by Jackie Chan.)
Still weighing in on Breaking Dawn Gail Gauthier speculates on one possible reason that Breaking Dawn disappointed some fans--the characters grew up too much:
"Bella and Edward are no longer in high school. They're dealing with
grown-up, family problems, not teen problems. When young readers were
reading about people they could relate to in the earlier books, they
were willing to ignore the way so many characters roll their eyes,
chuckle, and snore, the improbabilities regarding plot, and the scenes
that went on way too long. But Bella becomes matronly in Breaking Dawn,
and Edward seems as if he ought to be out playing golf."
And a few quick links... The YALSA blog posted this video encouraging people to register for the first ever Young Adult Literature Symposium, "How We Read Now," coming up this November in Nashville.
Cynthia Leitich Smith (Cynsations) interviewed Zu Vincent, author of The Lucky Place. Vincent talked about influences, challenges, and her experience at the Vermont College MFA Program in Writing for Children and Young Adults (responding to a question that must have been awkward coming from CLS, who's a faculty member there): "The Vermont College writers' community is so caring and the faculty amazing, you can't help but dig in."
Is Colleen Mondor the busiest blogger in YA-dom? I think so. Her August 2008 Bookslut column, Bookslut in Training, features a wide coming-of-age variety. She particularly recommends Barbara Shoup's Wish You Were Here.
She also moderates Guy's Litwire, which reminds me that I totally forgot to plug Paul's post there two weeks ago, with three guys from Fantagraphics Books talking about their early comics influences.
Speaking of Seattle-based comics folks, David Lasky signed with Abrams to publish his graphic novel about the Carter Family. It's not YA, but Lasky's earned serious teen cred by teaching at the nonprofit kids' writing center 826 Seattle, where he helped budding teen comic artists create and publish three 826 Seattle Comic Books: All Systems Go!, Family Portraits, and Happiness?. Oh yeah, and it's all volunteer. --Heidi
Vexing news for Harry Potter fans! Just arrived in my inbox is a press release that 
