WBBT Day Three
Sy Montgomery (Part 1) at Chasing Ray
Jacqui Robbins at Bildungsroman
Sarwat Chadda at Finding Wonderland
Bonnet Rippers!
That just may be my favorite subhead I've ever come up with, just so you know, referencing–of course–the Amish romance trend.
My latest feature for Publishers Weekly, "Romancing the Recession," explores the health and diversity the romance category continues to enjoy during what are tough times for much of the rest of publishing.
WBBT Day One
It's the most wonderful time of the fall–the Winter Blog Blast Tour:
Courtney Sheinmel at Bildungsroman
Derek Landy at Finding Wonderland
Quotable
From A.O. Scott's essay in the NYT about children's movies:
The impulse to protect children from these kinds of stories is understandable. Like adults, they experience plenty of hard feelings in their daily lives — at home, on the playground, in the classroom, in their dreams — and they may want, as we do, to use movies and books as a form of escape. Bright colors, easy lessons and thrilling rides that end safely and predictably on terra firma have their place. But so, surely, do representations of the grimmer, thornier thickets of experience. That's what art is, and surely our children deserve some of that too. Which includes movies that elicit displeasure and argument along with rapture.
Sometimes we make too much of the division between generations, which is after all not a gap but a continuum. Every adult is a former child, just as every child is an incipient adult, and at their best, children's film and literature (which of course are almost never made by children themselves) is an attempt to communicate across this distance. Young viewers may see a premonition of what lies ahead as well as a sympathetic rendering of what they already know, whereas adults may find pleasure in recalling old hurts and relief that they are not at the mercy of them.
Via Sara Zarr.
I'm deep in the revision-finishing cave, but will emerge soon. I think. I hope.
Saturday Hangovers
- Catching up on LJ friendslist after a few days edition.
- Just read this Jeff Ford gem; it is to laugh.
- Cyn has an affecting remembrance of Norma Fox Mazer (there are so many out there). I had no idea that Norma Fox Mazer wrote the novelization of the Supergirl movie.
- Jo gives an update on the Montgomery County book censorship situation, which is just enraging on every level. And speaking of censorship, Adam Selzer's How to Get Suspended and Influence People* is now getting the enraging treatment.
- The subjectivity of reviews by way of the subjectivity of how Tessa Gratton feels about Kenneth Branagh. Heart this post.
- Karen rounds up some compelling stuff about communication and discourse from here and there.
- Alana Joli interviews Stacy Whitman about Tu Publishing, her new press that will focus on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for young adults.
- And now I'm off to attack the fiction, assuming the cat stops stepping on the keyboard.
*That totally would have been my high school memoir title.
Saturday Hangovers Read More »
Monday Hangovers
- Laurie Halse Anderson on the basics of writing picture books.
- The sad news began circulating over the weekend that Norma Fox Mazer had passed on after battling invasive brain cancer. She will be remembered and celebrated throughout the week over at the VCFA children's/YA alum blog, Through the Tollbooth.
- Meghan has some great writing quotes.
- More love for Whip It! Which you really must see if you haven't. And, semi-related at least, Betsy tosses out some children's lit-themed roller derby names and asks for more. (See also: The more general ones in the comments on this post. My fave's OLIVIA NEUTRON BOMB.)
- Carolyn has a great profile/interview of Sherman Alexie in the LA Times.
- N.K. Jemisin offers wise words about southern racism.
- Kate Messner has more fun with Scrivener. What a great idea on the color coding of the index cards.
- Liz has a must-read summary of the FTC's clarification of its new "guidelines" at KidLitCon (oh, wish I could have gone). Sounds practically, gasp, sensible.
- Excellent news from Cat Valente–she sold Fairyland to Feiwel and Friends. Huzzah!
- The thoroughly awesome Bill Schafer gets interviewed about what nefarious and amazing hijincks Subterranean Press is up to over at Omnivoracious.
The Lessons of Despair
Junot Diaz has an excellent short essay in Oprah Magazine about the trials and tribulations of writing The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for ten years:
That's my tale in a nutshell. Not the tale of how I came to write my novel but rather of how I became a writer. Because, in truth, I didn't become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Wasn't until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am.
The Lessons of Despair Read More »
Nationally Booked
The NBA nominations are out and the Young People's Literature category is rocking it:
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)
LAINI! WOOT! RITA! WOOT!
I actually haven't gotten to Lips Touch: Three Times (Amazon
| Indiebound), but I know I will love it because Laini Taylor is an amazing person and a seriously amazing writer–her Blackbringer and Silksinger quickly became two of my favorite middle grade fantasies EVER.
And Rita William-Garcia is yet another awesome Vermont College faculty member to nab a much-deserved NBA nomination; Jumped (Amazon
| Indiebound) is absolutely brilliant and it makes me wriggle with joy to see it get this kind of attention.
The rest of the nommed books look great, too, actually*. What an awesome job the judging panel did; kudos: Kathi Appelt, Coe Booth, Carolyn Coman, Nancy Werlin, and Gene Luen Yang.
Oh, and, yeah, the rest of the categories are interesting too.
*Seeing from Twitter that David Small's Stitches may not actually be a children's/YA title. WEIRD. Updated: Aha! Ron Hogan investigates and finds out that Norton considers it a cross-over title and entered it for contention in this category.
Hearted
Whip It is such a fun movie, and with a heart as big as Drew Barrymore's seems to be. What's not to like? I am sad that our local team's season just ended.
But, hey, let's come up with derby girl names anyway. I'm liking Candy Carnage and Erin Breakovitch at the moment.