{fiction, instead of lies}

Hmmm. How do YOU define multicultural literature? Because there is no single definition, according to the U of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center, your answer might well be quite a bit different from mine. Most people assume that it simply means books celebrating cultural diversity through children’s literature; some people assume that the books have to have been written by persons of color for persons of color; while others feel that the content and topic of the book must be something like racial equality, getting along with people of different cultures, etc. Some people I’ve spoken with are uncomfortable with the idea of multicultural literature, feeling that books for children should be …books for children. Period. Anyway, Mitali Perkins shares statistics which point out that there is still a lot to be desired in the realm of books out there for young folks. I know for a fact that the day I tried to find multicultural literature about Latino kids, all I kept finding was Dora the Explorer — I mean, Yay for Dora, but come on… Can we not find another Latina icon in literature? Anyone?

I imagine finding literature for and about Middle Eastern children, short of a few works that are meant to help children of other nations and cultures understand what’s at stake with the hostilities in that region, must be well-nigh impossible. Other under-represented groups are Korean Americans, Cambodian Americans, and First Nation Natives, including the Australian aboriginal peoples. Mitali is a most excellent resource for multicultural literature, as is, of course, Pooja Makhijani but I found another site, currently being updated whose full focus is also on creating an annotated bibliography of multicultural children’s lit. It includes many websites for further research, and divides books by genre such as realistic fiction, nonfiction, traditional folk tales, historical fiction, biography, poetry, fantasy fiction, and also by approximate grade level. (Note -there are no reviews.)

Meanwhile, Louisiana libraries continue the work of rebuilding their stock, and are taking wise advantage of the devastation last year to bolster certain genres. Gay and Lesbian selections and a greater number of books for and featuring African American children and adults are included in their new purchases.

Comic Stephen Pastis reminds us that though Madonna did it, NOT EVERYONE SHOULD WRITE CHILDREN’S LITERATURE!
Stop it now, Rat.

A goody from NPR This Weekend is an excerpt from Daniel Woodrell’s ‘Winter’s Bone’. It’s garnering comparisons to True Grit and Dicey’s Song, and is described as well-articulated teen angst. Sounds promising!

I really wish I’d saved the Contra Costa paper the other day — someone took a picture of a church marquee that read ‘Believe it or not — it is NOT hotter than hell!’ Well, it’s hot…enough lately to boost book sales. Seriously. What else should you do when it’s too hot to even run the TV? Read!

Meanwhile, the L.A. Times reports that teens are …bored. A new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, the first in a series of annual entertainment surveys, finds that a large majority of the 12- to 24-year-olds surveyed are bored with their entertainment choices some or most of the time, and a substantial minority think that even in a kajillion-channel universe, they don’t have nearly enough options. “I feel bored like all the time, ’cause there is like nothing to do,” said Shannon Carlson, 13, of Warren, Ohio, a respondent who has an array of gadgets, equipment and entertainment options at her disposal but can’t ward off ennui.

Methinks it’s time somebody went to the library! At least that’s what my mother always said if I dared to even mention the ‘b-word’ between June and August: “Want to write me a book report?” Thanks, Mom.

On a related topic, those bored teens listening to music and not reading better watch out. Another study in the DUH category says there are other things ennui-ridden teens are encouraged to do in our hypersexualized culture. Really? Seriously? Who knew?

This has to have been the shortest summer on record. How did it get so late so soon?!
Happy Monday…

YA and children’s author James Howe feels that kids need support in facing their fears. In a recent interview, Howe states that although his books at times go to a dark place, it’s important to lead a reader “back to the light.” Howe’s popular Bunnicula series, about a vampire …rabbit have been a favorite for younger readers for a long time. Howe’s work for older readers, including The Misfits and Totally Joe, follow the same pattern: putting characters in situations that identify fears that we all face, including rejection, loneliness and being unloved, and helping the character and the reader find their way through.

Via Kid’s Lit @ the Greenlake Library.

SCBWI is passing the word on BUZZ WORDS (THE LATEST BUZZ ON CHILDREN’S BOOKS). This new online professional monthly newsletter for children’s writers, illustrators, editors and librarians became available on 1 July. It reports on up-to-date industry information with markets, opportunities, festivals, courses and competitions for those writing for young people and features regular interviews with Australian authors, illustrators, editors, book publicists and literary agents as well as new publications, book reviews and helpful books and websites.

Email dibates@enterprisingwords.com with heading SAMPLE BUZZ WORDS for a free sample copy. You might also check out the Enterprising Words site itself; there’s an online Creative Writing for Young People course that might interest the creative teen writers you know.

Maybe I’m showing my age, but I remember my mother HATING Barbie. She refused categorically to ever buy me a Barbie doll, and I was crushed and humiliated at receiving old ones, hand-me-downs from sympathetic friends in elementary school who thought my mother was crazy. This week, NPR takes on ‘tweens’ and the media with a special report and an essay by Sara Sarasohn, who writes, “There are so many ways that kids are sexualized these days that my mother’s Barbie ban seems sweet and quaint.” (Sarasohn’s bigger worries these days are finding toddler clothes that don’t say Juicy across the tush.) Keeping in mind that the original Barbie concept was modeled on a German doll that was actually an ambitious hooker… this is definitely some food for thought…

I have so much to do that I’m having trouble figuring out where to start. So, I’ll try my usual method: avoidance! Edit Hell continues, but I’m making progress…

A few quick thoughts, and then back to work:

There’s not much going on in the world of Children’s Lit during the summer slump, but I got a chuckle out of a Publishers Weekly piece on fantasy – that no matter what my agent says, it’s not dead, and the appetite for it is growing larger. What hath Rowling (who netted quite a snarking last year on her birthday from Terry Pratchett) wrought? True, the storylines are getting greater scrutiny and the fantasy writer really has to be on their game to get published, but that segment of the market is still wide open.

Meanwhile, the 11th Magic School Bus book has been printed! Who knew that kids and science were a great combinations?! Miss Frizzle has been driving the bus since 1986, which is an amazingly good run for a series, not to mention the great PBS series with Lily Tomlin that has been going on since at least the mid-90’s. Drive on, Miss Frizzle!

And finally, since Starbucks won’t be satisfied until it reaches world domination, it’s putting out children’s books.“Starbucks doesn’t market to children, but it does market to families,” says publicity director Christy Salcido. “This was just a nice item to pair with candy.”

No.
It’s just too easy.
I’m not even going to touch that.

“You’re better off alive, no matter how messed up you think you might be right now. And you’re better off alive no matter how mean someone is being to you. You are simply better off alive than dead—no matter who or what you are, no matter who or what you love, and no matter what you do. Just don’t be mean. Being mean never works. Never. So that’s the only rule I can think of that’s worth following in life: don’t be mean. Yes, you can be mean to yourself if that’s what’s going to keep you alive. I’m sorry if that’s happening to you. But keep in mind that there are alternatives that hurt a lot less, and I hope you find one soon. Do what you have to do, and stay alive because it gets better. I promise. xoxo Kate”

I constantly belittle people who comment upon books without having read them, but— Reyhan Harmanci’s book review in the Chronicle this morning of Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws has given me some food for thought. Written by trans-gendered author and activist Kate Bornstein, the book takes a dark and serious topic and enters into its darkness with the intent of leavening it with humor, compassion and empathy.

Bornstein knows what it’s like to be not quite like everyone else. She was born a boy who didn’t feel like a boy, and it took a long journey to get to a gender in which she feels comfortable. The book was initially targeted toward lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer teens, but the content applies to any teen who has ever experienced a profound sense of depression and dark thoughts. That being said, some of the 101 Alternatives Bornstein offers are bluntly controversial. Harmanci was disconcerted to see cutting brought up as a viable option. Bornstein accepts that alternatives like “Get laid. Please,” “Experiment on animals and small children” “Make it bleed” or “Tell a lie” might not be what a parent would find acceptable from their child. While some of these are meant playfully, others are not. Yet, Bornstein insists if the alterantive is suicide… isn’t “unacceptable” behavior preferable?

Hmm.

I look forward to the comments of anyone who has read this book – would you reccomend it to a teen? The mini-version, which includes a Get Out of Hell Free card, seems full of good wishes and love from a person who has already been there. Whatever else this book might be, it does address a timely issue in an accessible, thoughtful way.

Good grief, not again. Yet another over-educated and under-intelligent soul is going off on the reading habits of American children and young adults. Now it’s summer reading lists they’re disparaging… we’re not spending enough time on the classics, and we’re turning out a nation of cereal-box readers. Oh, no, not enough classics?!! Who, tell me who will save the children!?

(FYI, there’s some really interesting stuff on the back of cereal boxes. And on Silk cartons. And inevitably reading something of INTEREST to you, even on the back of a box of cereal, can spark you to do a little research on your own… as is intended.)

This is NOT a new conversation. Understand, I’m coming from the rather cranky point-of-view of someone whose growing up literary investigations were closely monitored and usually curtailed. However, as I understand it for most people, summer reading is out-of-school reading, which therefore is a.) rare (thus the Wall Street Journal’s amusing turn of phrase “seasonal illiteracy”), and b.) is therefore a green light to read whatever you jolly well please, because you’re READING, which brings us back to our first reason. Schools and libraries have all sorts of fun programs surrounding summer reading, and encourage people to read — anything, everything. Books. Graphic novels. Encyclopedias. ANYTHING. And here the Journal is complaining because no one is pushing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Don’t those people normally just concentrate on making money? I suggest they get back to that and leave the librarians alone.

How tired I am of people moaning on about the Classics. Do we not yet realize that the so-called ‘canon’ is made up of a.) old b.) Caucasian and c.) male writers and characters, to a large degree? The difficult language and lengthy descriptions of a bygone world may not be as interesting first off to a young person. We can be frustrated with that, but it’s the truth. It takes time and education to appreciate things outside of our milieu. Young adult readers who don’t naturally gravitate those directions can be guided into them — in school. Maybe they’re just not asking for that type of encouragement during the summer, but if they’re asking, librarians still exist and are there to help. Meanwhile, I advocate a more multicultural and balanced approach where Sandra Cisneros can exist alongside Ralph Waldo Ellison and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Yes, older books are good. But it doesn’t necessarily follow that newer books are bad. Relegating Edward Bloor’s Tangerine to the category of some lightweight ‘sports book’ is to woefully misunderstand the subtleties of modern YA fiction, and what it can accomplish. (Moreover, it is to obviously admit that you’re commenting on it, and have never read it. Shame, Wall Street Journal. Shame.)

Yes, I read The Scarlet Pimpernel the summer when I was twelve, and then went on to read A Tale of Two Cities because it seemed kind of related. Please note that after that, I reread Anne of Green Gables, a book the Journal would say had “a soap opera plot,” because my brain needed a break. Adults have to acknowledge that a kid moves forward at a kid’s pace, not an adult pace. There will be time for Ahab and the whale, for feisty Jo and her insipid sisters, for Stephen Crane and Frederick Douglass, and all the others. Life is long. Childhood is too freaking short.

(Thanks to Jen Robinson’s Book Page for pointing out both the Journal article as well as Shannon Hale’s good rant.)

Someone asked me this morning, in reference to my Blog Against Racism comments, if I’d ever read any Octavia Butler, and after I’d finished waxing poetic and mopping my eyes and explaining that I’d named a character in my latest novel after her (a high honor, from me), I pointed them to her Wiki site. Looking there myself I found that a memorial scholarship has been created in her name.

I never even knew she was a MacArthur Fellow! Shows how much you care about a writer’s honors if they write good books.

I always thought I’d one day get to meet her…
I hope she knew how loved she was.

I have received my editorial letter from Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers! Huzzah! I should be working, but I’m not! Again, huzzah!
(Apparently procrastination among writers is catching…)
Let the time-wasting be unconfined! On with the dance!

Kudos to Fuse #8 for pointing out my newest timewaster site: Book-A-Minute, which cheerfully and succinctly ultra-condenses everything you’ve not got the time to read. My favorite example so far?

The Collected Works of Anne McCaffrey
———————————————–
Ultra-Condensed by Christina Carlson

Female Lead
I secretly love Male Lead. He must never know.
Male Lead
I secretly love Female Lead. She must never know.
(They find out.)

THE END

Which pretty much sums up, with deep and painful irony, everything our Anne has ever written, and made me snort my tea. Quel amusant.

Have you ever wondered how a book makes the cut to become part of the literary canon? I have, and apparently some teachers have, too. The Miami Herald this weekend discussed what makes a classic in children’s books — one reader thinks Catcher in the Rye isn’t a classic, and a classics professor from the University of Miami names Winnie-the-Pooh in favor of the Potter epics as classic literature. Classics, by Professor Phillip A. Russo’s lights, have to be old in order to be classics. Catcher isn’t yet old enough, but it will get there. Quoting 18th century author Samuel Johnson, who, when writing about Shakespeare 150 years after his death said that “length of duration and continuance of esteem” are the only earmarks of a classic, Russo doesn’t even yet include Joyce, Faulkner or Hemingway in that category.

I don’t really adore Catcher; Holden Caufield gets on my nerves. But Holden Caufield did something for millions of people who read it; it touched a nerve, it shaped a generation of outbursts and rebellious thinking for many. The impact of a novel has got to be worth something. (Thanks again to Fuse #8 for this find.)

And speaking of guys with impact, Cool Boys are being collected on Jen Robinson’s Book Page. Final list is Friday, so stay tuned for the results, and if you have a suggestion, make yours today! Ooh, and one more new time-waster: I keep forgetting to tell you to take the Teen Angst Novel Quiz. I took it, and found out that I am a book I haven’t read yet. Yay!

What Teen Angst Novel are You? – funny, lots of results, with pix, from the author of The Boyfriend List and Fly on the Wall

PREP, by Curtis Sittenfeld. Thought-provoking, class-conscious, analytical, smartly observant. Sometimes irritating. Go read it. It’s you. Happy reading! — E. Lockhart
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I’ll have to tell you if it’s “me” after I’ve read it.

Terry Pratchett’s Wintersmith, the next book detailing the adventures of Tiffany Aching, is due in the UK in September… and in the US in October.

I want to move to the UK.

Well, good is bound to win occasionally. This time good comes in the form of the the ACLU and a judge who ordered the Miami-Dade School Board to replace the disputed book Vamos a Cuba. Ole!

Meanwhile, in its quiet quest to take over the world, Amazon now sells…groceries. Okay. I’m not going to buy books from them anymore, but I might buy the occasional CD… but groceries?! Not so much. Incidentally, they plan to sell many organic products, trying to score that market share as well. Hm.

Sir Richard Branson of Virgin everything fame is playing that eccentric millionaire type again by getting into books. He’s bankrolling, of all things, Virgin Comics — comic books with Indian storylines. Joined by holistic author Deepak Chopra, his son, Gotham, Indian comic trailblazer Sharad Devarajan and others, this project looks to be really interesting. A South Asian professor introduced me during MFA days to Tibetan, Indian and Filipino folk and fairytales, and the vivid portrayals of dashing heroes, tricksters, lewd buffoons, gods, monsters, tragic heroines and hugely exaggerated villains seem to make comic books and Indian stories an obvious match. I’m intrigued!

Well, for those of you anxiously watching my mailbox with me, the editorial letter is still AOL. The heat wave and power outages in NY can’t be helping… Meanwhile, we all just…Keep…Working…