{fiction, instead of lies}

The morning paper is bulky with slippery ads. Toys and myriad electric shavers shriek for attention from blaring commercials and a horrifyingly fat man dragged by animatronic reindeer hangs from the neighbor’s bewildering rooftop Disney nativity (Frosty? Mickey? Baby, Shepherds, & Santa?). The season of EidChriskwanzukkah is upon us.

I am ignoring it all in favor of the continued balmy autumn days, and really could have taken another few days down in Monterey. But, alas, the rain was coming, and aside from that, I had to get back to my reading, my novel, and my blog… but hope you all had a lovely grateful weekend.

I suppose everyone has heard by now that there is going to be a Buffy graphic novel series. Okay, let’s just all say it — Comic Book. If someone (ahem, a. fortis!) can explain to me the difference between a graphic novel and a comic book, I’d love to hear it. At any rate, untold millions are blissed out that Buffy’s back. Season 8: The Graphic Novel. Sadly, no word yet of a musical within a comic book…

I wonder if this Buffy thing is part of the push to get girls involved in reading graphic novels. DC Comics has joined with Alloy Entertainment (eek, remember them from the Kaavya Viswanathan episode?) to come up with something just for girls called Minx Books. *Exciting Genre Crossover Alert!* Minx’s first graphic novel is called The P.L.A.I.N. Janes, and is written by Cecil Castellucci… and illustrated by Jim Rugg, who has his own comic creds firmly intact. This will be released in May of next year. Exciting, as it is said that this is DC’s biggest push in the last 30 years! Though this is all very cool, Minx is still a ways behind my girl Pancha who has been doing the girl+graphics thing since I met her in grad school in 2002. At any rate, happy graphic novels to all the girls — anything that encourages readers and artists is great.

Via Jen Robinson’s Book Page, a very interesting piece on Linda Sue Park’s time on the National Book Award committee. And yes, they read Every Single Book that is nominated for the award. So I shall no longer look around, bug-eyed, over the mere eighty I am called to read for the Cybils… Speaking of which, we were Review of the Day on the Cybils board on Friday. Yay! I think it’s a neat idea to showcase all of the reading and critiquing and blogging that’s gone on from all of us. This is a huge team effort, and it’s going to be fun to see it all pulled together… Meanwhile, over at Chasing Ray, we discuss adults reviewing YA books — are adult readers/reviewers really too old to think like teens and do we review books about YA sexuality fairly, given our not being the age of the author’s intended audience? I’m giving that some serious thought, especially in reference to the Cybils. Hmm.

The buzz on Cathy’s Book is pretty good, surprisingly. Despite the high degree of product placements that make it read like an ad, the plot as reviewed by The Chronicle is reportedly mostly okay. This is a book that I’ve wanted to read since I heard about it, because of the neat Web connections, etc. that were intended to deepen the mystery. It’s on my ever-lengthening to-be-read list…

Now, here’s something interesting. The Book Standard has book video awards for teen novels. Starting this week, they’ll begin the judging. It’s an interesting idea to get readers acquainted with books; I’ll be interested as the whole book video thing gets off the ground to see how successful it is for YA. (Via Bookshelves of Doom.)

Back to the books for now!

Midnight, Eastern Standard Time was the hour that the Cybils closed, and can I just say first a serious thank-you to everyone who participated? You rock! Our team has …drum roll, please… EIGHTY TWO books (at last, bleary-eyed count) to consider for our part of the award. Eighty-two! And now can I just say an exasperated “thank GOD the list is closed!” There are five of us. There are eighty-two books. We are reading as fast as we can…

This continues to be good fun.

As I’ve been reading for the Cybils, I’ve sometimes had a little moment of surprise and/or a “Yeah, it’s good we’re talking about this” moment at some of what I’ve read. When dealing with YA literature, there’s always been the school of thought that it must be edgy, must be hip and ‘now,’ and that what “now” is, is quite mature in ways many of us were not, at least in our 13 – 17 year old days (and possibly in ways some of us still aren’t now!). I’ve been pleased to find that our nominations span both ends of the spectrum — the relatively tame, and the completely… lively; the relatively shallow, and the comparatively deep. Since it’s my feeling that there are just as many shades of young adulthood as there are themes in literature, it’s great that our nominations run the gamut.

I’m not sure how I’d feel about some of the ‘gaumuting’ in Middle Grade or Picture Books, though. I’m glad I have nothing to do with stuff for younger readers, it seems like someone is always throwing down a challenge and stalking school board members when it comes to literature for younger kids. Sometimes it must seem to parents that writers of children’s books write them solely to talk about the things that they, the parents, don’t want to talk about — and don’t want anybody ELSE talking about to their kids… For instance, a book in literal black-and-white by Dutch author Dolf Verroen received the Gustav Heinemann Peace Prize in Germany this week for talking openly to children about …racism. The story is told from the point of view of a white slave-owner’s daughter, who receives a slave for her birthday. He is dumb, she thinks, and is almost instantly bored with him. Verroen sets up the slave owner’s daughter not as a “bad guy,” but as a person for whom there is no other lifestyle – she acts the way she does because she doesn’t know any better. The very banal description of the inhumanity in the way she treats her slave makes for discussion and social commentary in and of itself. At the close of the controversial book, the slave is sold, and the girl goes away to boarding school, and while it’s less likely that UK parents are going to go to war with the school board, there are a whole lot of confused and unhappy parents there. Oh, and the title of the book? “Wie schön weiß ich bin” (“How Nice and White I Am”). Wow. Can’t wait for the reviews.

On American shores, ABC News reported just last week on writer and activist Zekita Tucker’s controversial children’s book dealing with the n-word. I was surprised that I haven’t heard much else about this book, so it must not yet be widely circulated, as it has been out since March of this year. Some people see it as a godsend, while others are bewildered that this topic has to be discussed with children in the 6-8 year old range at all.

This sentiment of ‘why are we discussing this’ also came to the fore this week at Shiloh Elementary School in Illinois, where parents requested that a picture book on the true story of two male penguins who adopt an egg at a New York Zoo, be restricted to a section for mature issues, and maybe even require parental permission before their child can check it out. Parents requested this because the story stated that the penguins “were in love,” and felt that the picture book introduced homosexual themes that their children were too young to understand. (Although if the kids were too young to understand those themes, why, then, could they not just read a story about penguins adopting? Never mind.) (I surmise the same parents who vociferously protest this story also don’t know that the so-called “gay” penguin “couple” has “broken up“. And yes, we will anthropomorphize everything in our path!). Although the challenge has not succeeded in Illinois so far, parents in other schools in nearby states are bewildered and frustrated by the book’s presence in their elementary school library.

As a writer, I know that sometimes there are stories I want to tell – that I feel need to be told. I am careful about things that other writers aren’t as careful about, mainly because I’m still leery of my mother reading something of mine and having a stroke, or my teachers coming after me with the soap. But seriously, while a writer doesn’t want to censor themselves, I think a lot of us do think about what we include in our work. How racy is too racy? How intimately do you want to depict… well, intimacy, or how graphically do you want to portray violence? People are always asking Chris Crutcher about language, and why he “makes” his characters swear. Is authenticity in literature only possible when the character uses multi-syllabic profanity? Maybe… Maybe not. The thing is, as a writer, it’s impossible to know where to draw the line for how far one will go based on one’s readers… because there are as many readers and as many lines as there are books … and you will never please everybody.

That’s somewhat of an awful thought, as well as a freeing thought: you, writer-whomever-you-are, wherever you are, you cannot make everybody happy with your work.

So, just do what you’re going to do.

I continue to laugh at myself for presenting this as The Big Thought, and I’m sure I’ve written about it before, but it’s a compelling truth, one that I have to rediscover repeatedly: I cannot make everyone happy with my writing. I can’t make anybody like what I’ve done, or what I do. I have to be true to my …vision of whatever. And go with it.

So, I’ll do what I’m going to do my way (and my agent will moan, “For God’s sakes, let your characters swear!” which is the single funniest line I’ve ever heard anyone utter inadvertently), and you do what you’re going to do your way.

And that’s all.

Oh, and good luck with the school board.

I’m in the middle of reading a winner! Cheers to the astonishing, talented M.T. Anderson!

Just yesterday I discovered Nancy Werlin’s daily blogging about the National Book Awards, and was disappointed on her behalf when M.T. Anderson’s novel, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. One: The Pox Party won last night. Not that Anderson’s book is anything that didn’t deserve to win! No way! I’m in the middle of it, and it’s intensely …different. I’m deeply intrigued by Anderson, his talent, and his flexibility. Still, this was a hard, hard, hard choice amongst some really great books, so I’m also a little disappointed that American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang didn’t win. I have big hopes for the future of graphic novels, not only because it encourages more writers/artists, but because it creates a new audience of readers. So, tough choices all around, but I’m excited that this is the FIRST volume in Anderson’s work on Octavian. I can’t wait to finish it and write up a review on our sister site.

Meanwhile, Competizione has more whacked out contests going on – don’t forget to check them out to win fun stuff from the blogosphere that you completely don’t need, but what the heck. Also don’t forget our book awards — the clock is ticking on the Cybils, guys, and nominations close the 20th!

On my own writing front, a note from S.A.M. informs me that my editor is still catching up on her post-wedding work, but my contract is coming down the pipe to me soon, and that my editorial letter and a read-through on my second novel is in the works. If I think I’m busy NOW, after Thanksgiving I have a feeling that things are going to really and truly kick into high gear, as we work to conclude this final edit so that my release date — tentatively scheduled for Winter 2007-08 — can stay on track. This is a good, if antsy feeling… one which I feel better not thinking about at all, which is why I’m just as cheerful to dive back into my Cybils novels once again. And can I just say it’s a huge dive? Yesterday I just received my review copy of Aidan Chambers’ newly released book… all 816 pages of it. I’d better get back to work!!

Cheers!

*secret agent man

A late Armistice Day to you (One doesn’t wish one a “happy” armistice, does one? Since the “war to end all wars” has now been labeled WWI, that’s an unbearable bit of irony, I should think…). I hope you read one of Wilfred Owens’ poems, and at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month gave brief thanks that no one was shooting at you, and braved a wish that soon no one would be shooting anyone at all.

This week seems a bit short on book news for young adults, but I want to point out an insightful adult book that someday may inform how history is taught in classrooms. What Was Asked of Us: An Oral History of the Iraq War by the Soldiers Who Fought It, by Trish Wood is a collection of interviews of current and returned soldiers that is shattering and painful to read. Our paper carried only an excerpt this weekend, but it was enough to know that this is going to be an important piece of posterity.

No matter how quickly adult books seem to be able to pounce on breaking news and make it into a bestseller, children’s lit moves at a much slower pace. I’d like to think that’s because young adult writers have the sensitivity to know that multiple points of view and mixed emotions mean that books for young readers have to be carefully crafted, unlike adult books which seem to land heavily on one side or another of a question without taking sensitivities into context, but that may be overly optimistic. For whatever reason, I have found very few books on the current situation of war, and those that I have found have been reviewed so poorly that I have hesitated to mention them. Colleen (corrected 11/19 from Colette – sorry Colleen, brain fog!) over at Bookslut (in Training) has done a whole bunch of reviews on this topic this month, so do check them out! And I’d like to share the two young adult books I am looking forward to reading as well. One is an early reader book called The Librarian of Basra, and another graphic novel called Alia’s Mission: Saving the Books of Iraq.

Published in December of 2004 and January of 2005, these books single out the heroism of one woman, a librarian from the city of Basra named Alia Muhammad Baker who singlehanded moved 30,000 books from the Basra library, six days before the liberation of her city in Iraq burned the library to the ground. Speaking of a single person’s heroism sidesteps prickly political issues and allows young readers a feel-good story they can get into. In this small way, the deprivations of war are apparent — people trying to save people will inadvertently burn down libraries and destroy homes and lives in the process: that is war. However, these books also allow a glimpse inside the stereotypes of perhaps what readers see on the news, and allows them to see that people everywhere are somewhat the same, and that there are people everywhere who will do almost anything to save a good book.

This month has simply exploded into busy-ness. I think the NaNoWriMo thing is going to have to take a back seat to the Cybils, that fantabulous award whose reading list is happily growing longer and longer (And if you haven’t nominated anything yet — move quickly! November 20th approaches at a remarkable clip!). My quick-write novel is also taking a back seat to the Thanksgiving Pageant into which I somehow got embroiled (no turkey costumes, thankfully, but we’ve got presidents! Costume ideas for Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter, anyone?), unexpected in-law visits (oh, dark day!!!!!) my last edit and then holiday travel plans to the aquarium with the Little Sibs (I love that so many things are open Thanksgiving Day!).

I’m still popping into cyberspace between book reviews, and I’ve been reading some great blog posts. I have especially snickered at Fuse #8’s contentious little discussion on “classic books” that we’ve all hated — books like The Giving Tree and Love You Forever and other weirdly guilt-producing favorites of people who like to say which book is “classic.” I am SO glad other people think that mother/son duo had some serious psychological hang-ups… It’s true that many people hate Little Women and loathe Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Wizard of Oz, Pollyanna, and many of the Anne books past the original Green Gables, but I’m actually embarrassed to name my own truly most un-favorite picture book… but I’m going to take this opportunity to do so anyway: it’s Tiki Tiki Tembo.

Okay, stop with the hissing!

Even as a child, I not only wondered what the heck was wrong with the mother for very obviously loving ONE son more than the other, I was annoyed that she’d given them such dumb names!

Look, stop throwing things, okay? I know people look back on this one with nostalgia, and a whole lot of people can recite it whole. But I find this to be less a children’s book, and more a long joke with a racist punch line. Yeah, I know – sour grapes to me. Kids love to say that long, silly name, and I don’t blame them. But there are simply better chant-along books. I’m just sayin.

November is really here — complete with schizophrenic weather patterns of balmy blue sunny days followed by steel gray damp and cold. I’m starting my thankfuls already, and just now, I’m thankful for fleece blankets, good lighting, and more Cybils books to read.

TTFN

My friend J.R. has the most adorable child, who, when she was about three, took to telling the librarians that she was taking books from the library so she could read to dogs. At the time, we all just giggled and chalked it up to another of Gabriella’s ‘cute-isms,’ but I’ve just seen an ad from Target about kids reading to dogs. Wow! We always knew that G. is future Mensa material!
And here’s something else we already knew: reading to kids — from actual books — a Good Thing. A report from Temple University reveals that traditional books are the ticket for the parent-child interaction that a child needs to assist them with early childhood literacy. The researchers presented the findings of their study, “Electronic books: Boon or Bust for Interactive Reading?” on Nov. 3rd as part of the Boston University Conference on Language Development. Do check out their findings.

Ladies and gentlemen: we have ARRIVED. Props to Jackie’s Mom, another awesome librarian, for pointing this out — the Cybils have made the Publishers Weekly Children’s Bookshelf Newsletter! You’ll need to scroll down a ways to In Brief to find it, but I’m tickled that our group of intrepid readers, writers, teachers, librarians and home schooling parents has made a bigger ripple in the book world than we thought. Yay for us! And thanks to my fellow teammates, and all the others, who are working so hard to make this happen. This is — even with all the weird questions about double nominations, and deciphering which book belongs on which list — so much fun.

And now, back to work…

My life of crabby hermitude has resumed! I am finally happily ensconced, recovering from the brush with actual employment that was my last bout of substitute teaching. And I can say with joy that today no one has throw up on me, nor have I had to dry out shoes and reassure anyone short that yes, even big kids have accident sometimes.

Substitute teaching: the reason my junior high dream of having twelve kids will never come true.

I’m now catching up with the news that has bypassed me while I was being proactive and bright and smiley and telling everyone Good Morning!, instead of grousing into my morning tea and hacking out my novel — first, today, an unpublished poem written by Sylvia Plath will be published in an online journal. The discovery of a student, this poem was written while Plath was in college, and looks like it was actually a writing exercise, as they include two versions of the poem. Check it out!

Also news to me is that Garrison Keillor has opened an independent bookstore. I am SO JEALOUS. He is stocking only his favorite books, which, if you’re famous and already financially secure, you can do. See I wanted to do this. I wanted a bookstore called Bluestockings. I envisioned shelves carrying slim volumes of Sarah Orne Jewett and random titles from Kate Chopin, Maureen Johnson, Madeleine L’Engle, Ursula LeGuin and Garrett Freymann-Weyr, and others who write compelling, interesting, risky novels. And now Mr. Keillor has stolen my idea. Pffffft.

While I am reading some really great novels for the YA Cybil (and I am LOVING what I call St. Cybils’ Day — the UPS guy dropping off a daily load of review copies of novels from publishing houses), I am a teensy, tiny, tidge bit wistful that I’m not reading for the Sci-Fi books. I love Neil Gaiman, and I’m a bit jealous that someone else is getting to review his newest book. The New York Times reviews Gaiman’s latest, and discusses his penchant for adding dreams and dreamscapes to his work. Which makes me smile, especially because dreams, in fiction, can either really work — or really not work, and my agent has about sixty reasons why they do not. At any rate, Gaiman’s dreams definitely work!

Speaking of work…My Cybils novels are calling me, as is my NaNoWriMo story, so it’s back to my REAL job! Yay!

My life of crabby hermitude has resumed! I am finally happily ensconced, recovering from the brush with actual employment that was my last bout of substitute teaching. And I can say with joy that today no one has throw up on me, nor have I had to dry out shoes and reassure anyone short that yes, even big kids have accident sometimes.

Substitute teaching: the reason my junior high dream of having twelve kids will never come true.

I’m now catching up with the news that has bypassed me while I was being proactive and bright and smiley and telling everyone Good Morning!, instead of grousing into my morning tea and hacking out my novel — first, today, an unpublished poem written by Sylvia Plath will be published in an online journal. The discovery of a student, this poem was written while Plath was in college, and looks like it was actually a writing exercise, as they include two versions of the poem. Check it out!

Also news to me is that Garrison Keillor has opened an independent bookstore. I am SO JEALOUS. He is stocking only his favorite books, which, if you’re famous and already financially secure, you can do. See I wanted to do this. I wanted a bookstore called Bluestockings. I envisioned shelves carrying slim volumes of Sarah Orne Jewett and random titles from Kate Chopin, Maureen Johnson, Madeleine L’Engle, Ursula LeGuin and Garrett Freymann-Weyr, and others who write compelling, interesting, risky novels. And now Mr. Keillor has stolen my idea. Pffffft.

While I am reading some really great novels for the YA Cybil (and I am LOVING what I call St. Cybils’ Day — the UPS guy dropping off a daily load of review copies of novels from publishing houses), I am a teensy, tiny, tidge bit wistful that I’m not reading for the Sci-Fi books. I love Neil Gaiman, and I’m a bit jealous that someone else is getting to review his newest book. The New York Times reviews Gaiman’s latest, and discusses his penchant for adding dreams and dreamscapes to his work. Which makes me smile, especially because dreams, in fiction, can either really work — or really not work, and my agent has about sixty reasons why they do not. At any rate, Gaiman’s dreams definitely work!

Speaking of work…My Cybils novels are calling me, as is my NaNoWriMo story, so it’s back to my REAL job! Yay!