Category: Books

A Book Book

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Possibly my favorite description of the Kindle ever comes from Rachel Walsh, an Illustration student at Cardiff School of Art & Design. Her assignemtn: “Explain something modern/internet based to someone who lived and died before 1900.” She chose to explain the Kindle to Charles Dickens by creating books within a book:

“All the books I made had the actual covers on them, and were the books Dickens wrote, his favourite childhood books, or books I’ve got. There are 40 little books inside.”

Click through for more pictures of Walsh’s project. So cool! (via Lit Drift)

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Reader

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One reason I love children’s/YA lit is because those are books that stay in your heart forever. Even if you read a book that strikes you as an adult, it’s a very different feeling than falling in love with a book as a child. I remember feeling as if I truly owned books when I was young. I assumed that any book I read was new because I had only just stumbled across it. (To my surprise, A Wrinkle in Time didn’t get published in 1995.)

Of course I loved The Story Siren’s list of Top Ten Childhood Faves. I don’t have ten and my choices aren’t necessarily the best of children’s literature, but they’re books I devoured. In no particular order:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
Two cousins, an evil governess, a boy who lives in the woods, and wolves stalking in the snow? Sign me up. I don’t remember why I picked this out of the library–I didn’t know anything about it beforehand–but I must have checked it out a dozen times after. Sometimes when I’m on a train in winter, I still think of Sylvia going to live with her cousin.

The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks
Banks is probably better known for The Indian in the Cupboard, but I fell in love with the classic fairy tale style. Dakin has three goals: to travel to the Farthest Away Mountain, to meet a gargoyle, and to marry a prince. Her solid determination struck me and I happily journeyed with her.

Witch’s Sister by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Technically, I was obsessed with the whole series, but I figured I’d just list the first book. Naylor has written dozens of amazing books, but the creepiness of the witch series got me. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to reading actual horror novels. Protagonist Lynn is convinced that her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Tuggle, is a witch. And Mrs. Tuggle keeps getting closer to members of Lynn’s family, usually to terrifying results.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
When I found out they were making a movie version, I was incensed. How could they make a movie without consulting me first? The movie was great, too, but I was so protective of the book. Obviously a classic, and I did dramatic reenactments in my room of Sara Crewe’s trials.

The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau by Jacques Cousteau
Technically, I don’t remember reading these (my first memories of them are from when I was about 3), but I loved looking at all the pictures. Porpoises, octopi, sea urchins: how is the ocean so cool? We had four or five of the twenty-one volumes, and I can’t even remember which ones exactly, but I remember opening all of them and sitting in the middle of the collection and enjoying all the ocean wonder. Even though I love fiction, I think it’s great to give kids nonfiction titles as well. They’re so naturally curious about the world, and books are a fantastic way to explore.

What are some of your childhood favorites?

Or Rather, More Updates to My Christmas List

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Kirkus has posted its list of Best Teen Books of 2011. Lots of great titles included. On my TBR list:

Wow, a lot of author/illustrator combinations for these. A new trend in YA?

I’m especially glad to see a portion of the list devoted to Realism in the Here and Now. As great as supernatural romances or fantastical adventures can be, contemporary YA will always have a special place in my heart.

 

More Than the Parts

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It sounds like it should be a simple question: what makes a good Newbery novel? Patricia Lee Gauch tackles this question over at the Horn Book. She comes up with a few key criteria:

  • a remarkable character
  • the right stage (the character’s world)
  • a story arc (the journey the character is on)
  • a question (the character’s need)

Gauch goes into great detail examining all the facets here, using wonderful examples from Newbery winners to illustrate her points. Even just the examples make me giddy with excitement or ache remembering painful moments. All of these books are alive with character, plot, setting, motivation, etc.–the key word being alive. The Newbery books stay in your heart the way most other books don’t. As Gauch says, “I am convinced that the embassy selected these books because they are powerful stories of humanity behaving humanly on powerful stages. It is our culture at its best that we want to share.”

The list above looks so simple, but Gauch’s article indicates that what makes these books stellar is that they’re more than a sum of their parts. Because they work so well on all those levels, they can create an intense emotional experience for the reader–whether that’s joyful or sorrowful or a combination of both. I think all authors strive to hit all items on Gauch’s list, and the ones that really do are the ones we remember for a long time.

An Idea Calls

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One of the books on my fall “to read” list is A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. He’s probably best known for his Chaos Walking series, and it sounds like A Monster Calls will have the same combination of compelling characters and thrilling situations. The story is actually based on an idea by Siobhan Dowd, another excellent YA author who sadly passed away in 2007.

Check out an interview with Ness over at Milk and Cookies: Comfort Reading. Here, he talks a little about the writing process for A Monster Calls and writing it based on Dowd’s original idea.

“I didn’t really have an outline for A Monster Calls and that’s kind of the thing that made it okay for me to write. I could take Siobhan’s idea and grow it naturally into its final shape (just like she would have done had she been able to finish it; though, inevitably, hers would have been a very different final shape and it’s truly a shame we’ll never see it). I think if you get to outline stage, the book is already written to a certain degree and may not be allowed to play and grow and change, like any story must do to live. So if I’d left behind just an idea, the ideal situation would be having a whole bunch of different people have a look at it, and see where their imaginations took them in all those different directions. That’d probably be the best result of all, and probably the most interesting to read.”

Even though, as Ness says, it’s a shame we’ll never get to see Dowd’s version of the story, I’m glad the idea didn’t disappear. It sounds like a compelling read!

Not Just Browsing

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For me, book shopping is split into two categories: online shopping at sites like Amazon is for convenience, stores are for the experience. Obviously Amazon can sell almost any book the way a real store can’t, which is helpful if you need a particular book immediately (oh, is book club this Sunday?). But most times, going to a bookstore is about browsing. Maybe I go in with a particular book in mind, but I’ll also take a spin around the shelves and see if anything else jumps out at me. I like seeing what’s “staff recommended” and what’s on sale. It’s more about enjoying books than just purchasing them.

The Daily Beast defends the independent bookseller and lists the best independent bookstores in America. “Great independent bookstores are draws and destinations in their own right. They help define their town to the outside world.”

I haven’t been to any of the bookstores on John Avlon’s list (not even the Strand, sadly), but they’re going on my “to visit” list. In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite local stops:

  • Brookline Booksmith is my local book seller and a favorite in the Brookline area. It has a great inventory, with lots of sales and staff suggestions, and a basement full of used books, too. Their staff is helpful and there always seems to be a good crowd browsing. They also host fantastic readings, featuring everyone from first-time authors to famous poets to the local MFA students. It’s hard to stop in without buying anything.
  • One of my favorite bookstore experiences happened at Porter Square Books last year. I picked up a copy of the Horn Book Magazine, grabbed a cup of coffee, and settled into one of their cafe chairs. A few chairs away from me was another twentysomething woman, working on her laptop. After a moment, she looked over at my magazine and asked if I was part of the local graduate program in children’s literature. (I wasn’t, she was; we both love children’s lit.) To me, this was a great example of the Porter Square Books client–someone who loves books and enjoys talking about them.
  • When I first moved to Boston, the first bookstore I can across was Trident Booksellers. Between it’s awesome selection and it’s amazing cafe, it’s one of my favorite places to take out-of-town friends for brunch. What’s better than browsing the stacks after a stack of challah french toast?
  • Wellesley Books is a bit of a trip for me compared to the other stores on this list, but considering their author events the drive is worth it. In the last couple of years, I’ve attended readings by Shannon Hale and Suzanne Collins (I tried to contain my inner fangirl at both), and both were absolutely fantastic. From my experience, Wellesley Books is particularly strong in the children’s department and brings in a variety of YA/children’s authors.
Even though e-readers are becoming more prevalent and Amazon’s not going anywhere anytime soon, I think the experience of an independent bookstore still stands out for people who consider themselves readers. What are your favorite bookstores?

I Think There’s Been a Misunderstanding

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From a recent article about why adults like YA:

“Now Dr Louise Joy, a Cambridge University academic, has suggested that traditional children’s tales attract older readers because they offer things that jaded adults cannot find in their everyday lives. “Books such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach offer a world where self-consciousness is overthrown and relationships are straightforward… But relationships in the real adult world are often fraught by miscommunication and the impossibility of understanding one another properly.”“

I’m sorry, but is she reading different version of these books? Neither Alice nor James have an easy time of it, even just when they try to communicate. Also, I don’t think I’ve seen many people with Alice in Wonderland on the T recently. Mostly, if people are reading YA, I’d wager it was something written in the last 50 years.

Also, maybe Joy had a different childhood than I did, but I’m pretty sure children’s relationships are fraught with miscommunication. It can be hard enough for kids to understand the layers of their emotions; communicating those layers is even worse. Look at Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time. In the initial chapters, she has a horrible time communicating with pretty much anyone outside her family. She’s emotional and volatile and sensitive. And what about Max in Where the Wild Things Are? He torments the dog and gets sent to his room. How are these characters and their relationships free of any kind of misunderstanding?

Someone needs to get Dr. Joy into the children’s section of a local library immediately.

(via bookshelves of doom)

High School’s Never Over

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Dyana Herron’s essay, “Why I Read Young Adult Literature,” is a fantastic look at what YA means for teen and adult readers alike. One of my favorite points:

“…when I began to read contemporary books written for young adults, I found a wealth of well-written, sensitive, imaginative, bold stories about individuals who are navigating a crucial, difficult time in their lives.

A time in which they are awakening to the fact that the world is not as safe as it may have seemed during childhood, in which they are developing identities outside their family units, in which they are having sexual awakenings, making best friends, losing best friends, falling in love, and — almost invariably — wondering if they are going to survive to experience something better.”

I think YA Lit could easily be called Coming of Age Lit or (if you want to get really literary/pretentious) Bildungsroman Lit. It’s about encountering the world and yourself for the first time. As with adult literature, the tone can vary from funny to serious, breezy to intense, and more. And most YA (not just the best) is about a character confronting something new and exciting/upsetting. How is that not engaging?

Herron goes on to talk about why she still reads YA even though her middle/high school days are over:

“The need for these kinds of stories isn’t something that goes away when we graduate with our advanced degrees, or start paying our own rent, or when there’s no one around to care how late our friends call. “

I’m certainly touched by characters in YA stories, and I doubt that’s going to change anytime soon. I think a lot of adult readers assume that all YA is Sweet Valley High or Gossip Girl. But that’s like assuming that everything in the general fiction section is by Dan Brown or James Patterson. There’s a wealth of material and emotion on the YA shelves, and I hope more people start opening themselves up to the genre.

Making It Mean Something

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On his blog, author Matt de la Peña has a great post about why trying to write something “meaningful” isn’t the goal a writer should have. Books can be meaningful, but it’s the readers who create that meaning:

“A few months ago there was a lot of chatter about how “YA Saves” (a response toa strange article in WSJ claiming contemporary YA novels have become too dark). Many authors were outraged (including me) and some began claiming that their books save lives (aka land planes) — which I’m sure many of their books have. But it’s a bad idea for an author to “set out” to write a life-saving book in the same way that it’s a bad idea to set out to write a an anti-abortion book. Agenda usually leads to bad fiction. And I think it’s the reader who makes a book a life-saver. Not the author. Right time, right place, inventive interpretation. And usually it’s a savvy librarian or teacher who reads a situation and pairs a book with a reader.”

So true. I’m sure secretly, all writers want to create something that “matters” and will connect with readers. But that drive can come at the expense of an organic narrative and rich characters. And, as Matt points out, you never know what will connect with a particular reader. When my grandfather died, I was twelve and didn’t know how to handle this loss. I locked myself in my room and tore through copies of Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik books. They weren’t about death or grief or grandparents. They weren’t even very serious. But I remember how those books helped me through a difficult moment.

Mostly, I think writers should focus on the story they want to tell. Someone will pick up on the meaning there, or find a new one for themselves.