space cadet margaret...

Okay, I just had to make a front page post about this:

I only JUST NOW realized that the lovely Kristin, with whom I have been e-exchanging opinions about books for almost a year now, is freaking KRISTIN CASHORE author of GRACELING which I read ( or, really, devoured) just about two months ago. AH! I have been forcing that book on everyone I know! And they all love it! It's so SMART AND AWESOME AND OH JEEZ I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVE BEEN BLOGGING WITH YOU FOR A YEAR WITHOUT KNOWING IT! I recommended this book so strongly that my friend who's teaching in Japan for the year bought it off of Amazon despite the presumably exorbitant shipping cost of buying a hardcover book. AND I ALMOST KNOW THE AUTHOR AND DIDN"T EVEN KNOW IT!

Okay. Fangirlish response done. I don't know how I didn't figure this out before, it's not like it's been in the least secret. It's RIGHT THERE in the very first post, under "Introductions." God, now I just want to go home and read Graceling again. Right now.

Did I mention I really, really, REALLY liked it?

links

On Read Roger, he links to an interview, on Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog, with Cathie Mercier, who many of us had as a teacher at Simmons. Check it out!

the first book of 2009

oh, quiet little blog, what are all of the misfits up to?

all comments about the john green book seemed to have died out, so maybe it's time to pick a new book to read in january. once the ALA awards are announced in late january, we should have some good ideas for what to read in february. anyone have any ideas? i recently read (and LOVED) jellicoe road, by melina marchetta, and would love to talk about that with more people. my currently library line up is chains, by laurie halse anderson and bog child, by siobhan dowd. are there any books coming out soon that anyone is particularly excited about?

(and seriously, what are all of the misfits up to? what are you writing/working on/thinking about/etc?)

recapping 2008

2008 is almost over, so it seems like a good time to reflect on what we read. What did you like? What did you not like? Or, just what did you read, in general (whether published in 2008 or not)? Picture books, middle grade, nonfiction, YA, share it all with us! Next month we'll have to be making our lists for our best guesses for the ALA awards, so maybe these lists will be a good jumping off point.

Misfit news

Yay for Kristin, whose book Graceling is nominated for ALA's inaugural William C. Morris Award, which honors a book written by a first-time author for young adults. Graceling is nominated along with: A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce; Absolute Brightness by James Lecesne; Madapple by Christina Meldrum; and Me, the Missing, and the Dead by Jenny Valentine.

NYT Notable Books

Hi people!

The NYT named 8 notable children's books for the year this past weekend -- see the list here. It makes me really happy that The Disreputable History of Frankie Laundau-Banks is getting so much recognition. I was SO IMPRESSED with that book. And 10 Little Finger and ABC3D -- yay! I gave up on Little Brother; I got uninterested and impatient; but plenty of other trustworthy folk thought it was fabulous, so... The Hunger Games is on my floor waiting to be read, and I'm thinking of getting the audio book for the 2nd installation of Octavian Nothing. La la la. Just wanted to post the list, because it made me happy :o)

Paper Towns

WARNING: THIS POST WILL HAVE SPOILERS!
BEWARE!

Last night, I read John Green's Paper Towns all in one sitting. I am a huge fan of Green's books and had no doubt I'd love this new one. And I did. I don't really have much to say right now about this (still processing, and wanting to reread parts that I raced through because I am not a patient person), but wanted to start a discussion. I love Green's writing. It is always an excellent mix of truly funny and really poignant. And his characters really stand out to me and stick with me. They feel so unique (though, among his own books, they are becoming sort of stock characters, but I am happy to overlook that) and I love how witty, nerdy, and cerebral they are. I admit to getting frustrated at times with the clues and all the dead ends. And, I'm not sure what to think about Margo saying she didn't intend for Q to actually find her, that she only left the clue in his door jamb to lead him to the abandoned strip mall so he could use it as a place to escape to like she did. And, man, why was she such a total bitch when her friends found her? That was jarring to me. But maybe that's the point--just like Q really didn't know the real Margo (whoever that is), the reader can't really, either, so why should any behavior feel out of character? Anyway. I'm curious to know what everyone else thought. I think I'm biased to begin with, because I love Green's other books and watched every single second of the Brotherhood 2.0 project. I know this is the first book by Green that some here have read, so I'm looking forward to hearing reactions from different viewpoints. I'll probably have something more to say after I reread/think further on the book.

Also, p.s, I SO loved Radar! At first I kept thinking, well, he's no Hassan (Katherines), but came to adore him in his own right, as yet another quirky, hilarious sidekick.

(And finally, I read reviews today of Paper Towns, having avoided them until I got to read the book myself, and keep seeing it compared to a book called As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway. Has anyone read that one?)

happy banned books week

“[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume


Spied on Bookshelves of Doom: A Quiz on Banned Books


I got 10 out of 13, which I thought was pretty good, but the computer scoring system didn't seem wildly impressed with me.

What's your score? And what's your favorite frequently banned or challenged book/author? I'm always a big fan of Robert Cormier and Judy Blume (she sure is showing up everywhere these days).

Also, are you keeping up with YA for Obama? Lots of interesting posts on there.

Selections

I see that both John Green's book (Paper Towns) and Donna Jo Napoli's (Smile) come out on October 16. It looks like many of us are interested in those books or are going to be reading them regardless of if they're chosen for book club, so let's go with those. Maybe between now and then, we can talk about some picture books (Rebecca suggested some in a previous post) and other random stuff. Sound good?

Wordless PBs

I heard a lot of buzz about Suzy Lee's new picture book WAVE, so I took it out from the library. In fact, I've taken it out twice now. It's about a girl playing on the beach, interacting with the ocean and the waves that come on shore. Lee contrasts black & white parts of the illustrations  with blue parts (one shade of blue, one value).

It's a spirited book, but I can't bond with it.

My instinct is to say that I can't bond with it because of the details of the blue. It's a particularly medium shade of blue, one that I do not associate iconically with ocean; it's a slightly darker version of the blue often used symbolically for sky. Also, the fact that this book's blue is ONE hue only -- no bits of green, no navy, no gray -- and ONE value only (no shift of darkness/lightness) -- makes it hard for me to see the ocean in it. 

But it does change intensity (denseness; picture the same color with water added or water sucked out. Another word for intensity is saturation). And the compositions and figure are full of spirit.

Confession: I fear I have a problem with wordless picture books. I have a really hard time connecting with then. I haven't figured out why, but I think it's to do with pacing. I find myself skimming and flipping, going way too fast to do any page justice. I don't know why. With picture books that have only a few words per page, I do just fine: I take the pace any way I want to, any way the text and pictures tell me to, and it's all good. But when a picture book is wordless, my eyes and brain slip and slide over the surface. Can't find purchase.

Do you like wordless picture books? Why or why not? Do you read them with different pacing than picture books with words? Got any ideas for how I can appreciate them better?

Fall

Summer flew by with not a whole lot of activity on the blog. But now it's fall, with that back-to-school feeling in the air (even if it's been a good number of years now since many of us have been in school), so it seems like a good time to start some new discussion.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a novel for a September/October read? I confess to never having cracked open Twilight. Book reviews and books I'd rather read took priority, but I hope to still read it some day.

I'm still interested in reading a few picture books, too, if anyone else is down for that. Ideas?

Also, fall always brings new books. What upcoming titles are you looking forward to? I'm excited for John Green's Paper Towns to be out. I'm also looking forward to Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta; Love and Lies, by Ellen Wittlinger; and The Runaway Dolls, by Ann M. Martin. And, of course, fall means that you can now swing into your favorite bookstore and pick up Kristin Cashore's Graceling!

As usual, I always like to know what everyone is reading, writing, or working on. I'm glad to see Meaghan posted about her YA class and asked for suggestions. Not only will she surely get a load of ideas, but we can all update our reading lists, too!

Suggestions?

Hello Misfits Bloggers!

I'm taking a YA lit. class this semester; in addition to the assigned novels, I have to read and review 10-15 books (fiction and non) that were written expressly for teens. They should be relatively contemporary, covering a variety of genres, and something you would be likely to find in a public library. So far, I've picked out Looking for Alaska and Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist. Any suggestions?

In case you're wondering what's on the assigned list (and I know you are), here it is:

• Forever by Judy Blume
  
• Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly
• Fast Talk on a Slow Track by Rita Williams-Garcia
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• The Killer's Cousin by Nancy Werlin
• Peeps by Scott Westerfield
• Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
• Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman by Eleanor Updale
• Dr. Franklin's Island by Ann Halam
• Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
• Any book from the Gossip Girl series
• The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

Question about Breaking Dawn

Beware, MAJOR SPOILER inside.

The Squee Factor

I figured I'd jump in and start up our discussion of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight-- and where else, really, could one start such a conversation than with the book's obvious appeal: the Squee factor.

For the uninitiated, i.e. those of you who don't frequent internet message boards, "squee" is web-shorthand for the deafening cries of pure female adoration you'll hear any time any kind of teen idol (real or fictional) is seen or discussed by his rabid fans. Think of the noise the audience made at the Beatles' famous Ed Sullivan Show appearance as the ultimate personification of SQUEE. More generally, the word can be used to describe any kind of interaction/character/relationship/situation in fiction that would cause its readers to go "squee." The on again/off again, possibly forbidden romance, and all its concomitant sexual tension (see Wuthering Heights, Pam and Jim's relationship on The Office): SQUEE! The tall, dark, handsome, mysterious, slightly arrogant, seemingly distant-but-actually-secretly-in-love-with-the-heroine romantic hero (see: Mr. Darcy, Edward Rochester, Bruce Wayne, ... like every Harlequin romance novel ever)? SQUEE! The concept now defined, its relevance to Twilight must be completely apparent: it is a novel/series of books whose highest aspiration appears to be making its readers go SQUEE as often as humanly possible.

On a certain level, it's impossible to dispute its success. Just look at the books cultlike following-- Edward Cullen could easily give The Beatles a run for their money, squee-wise. I mean, just think about it-- he's this impossibly beautiful, super-humanly strong, witty, urbane, sophisticated, magically wealthy, excellently dressed, courtly, romantic, almost dangerous teenage vampire whose skin GLITTERS IN THE SUN. Capable of saving Bella from rapists, taking her out to an Italian restaurant, and having eyes only for her-- in a single night! When Bella faints, he picks her up in his arms, and all across America the post-feminist teen masses swoon. And yet, here in Boston-- or rather, down the Cape, where I actually started the book-- there was no swooning to be had. I didn't smolder, and my heart didn't throb. While I may have responded differently had I been a member of the book's core audience, i.e. a hormone-addled 15-year old who came of age in the era of the anti-Romantic naughts, the whole notion of this perfectly enthralling creature existing only to treasure Bella might have had a more profound appeal. But I don't think it would. Even at 15 I liked my romance with a healthy side of gender-bending ass kicking and sword fighting, as my adolescent obsession with Tamora Pierce indicates.

My biggest problem with the book, aside from its stomach-churningly retrograde gender politics, is that although Meyer knows how to name-check her "inspirations" (witness Bella reading both Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice for fun), she either doesn't get or is incapable or replicating the *real* key to the lasting appeal of such novels: the heroes of those books aren't simply flawless embodiments of male perfection, they are also well-matched with women of equal quality or passion. While I'm no big fan of either Heathcliff or Catherine Earnshaw, I can at least concede that they suit each other, and that the thrill of their relationship comes from the sense that they are equally matched in passion and fierceness, as well as beauty. As for Darcy and Elizabeth, while far more is said about him in this particular pop-culture moment, the book is (and has been) beloved by bright, articulate women everywhere as much for Elizabeth as for Darcy. She is neither so perfect that she is unrelatable, nor is she so devoid of spark or character that she's flat or dull. Even more critically, however, for my continued appreciation of the book, Elizabeth and Darcy both possess flaws, some which they must overcome to be together, and it is only through a process of mutual growth and change that their romance is possible.

Stephenie Meyer makes absolutely no attempt to turn Bella into Edward's equal in... anything. Bella's not particularly bright, she's not particularly pretty, she isn't spirited or funny, she has no defining interests or friends. Her only salient characteristics, as far as the book is concerned, are the intoxicating scent of her blood and her knack for falling down/getting nearly crushed by cars/attracting rapists. While the feminist in me appreciates this, a little, as the teenage girl's answer to the Unbelievably Hot Chick-Schlubby Guy pairings so popular in in movies and TV, neither trend does much for me. While it's good on some level to know that even if Seth Rogen can snag Katharine Hegel, Bella Swan can at least lock down Edward Cullen, I'd still rather see the kind of tension, spark, growth, and change engendered by the pairing of two characters of equal vigor. This kind of insipid escapist fantasy just makes me tired.

Older teens in YA books

While unable to sleep last night, I started thinking about authors I wish would put out more books. I landed on Hilary Frank. If you haven't read Better Than Running at Night and I Can't Tell You, go do so. I got to thinking about how her books are YA, but feature kids in college. Then I tried to come up with more YA novels with college-aged protagonists, but came up empty. Can anyone else think of any? I must just be drawing a blank.