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Strollerderby
Shel Silverstein isn’t the only author of what have become classic kids books to have a new book coming out. Maurice Sendak, the beloved writer and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, has just published a book about 9-year-old Bumble-ardy, an orphaned pig who as never had a birthday party.
Terri Gross interviewed Sendak for NPR’s show Fresh Air and the 83-year-old talks about what he was going through in his personal life while creating Bumble-ardy. His longtime partner, Eugene Glynn, was dying of lung cancer. Continue reading »
Start boys young on books featuring girls.
If you have been following news about literature at all for the last year, then you know there’s been quite a bit of discussion about female writers. Are they taken seriously enough by book critics who write the reviews and compile the must-read lists? Are they represented adequately in the nominations for the year’s top literature prize? The numbers show that, no, no they’re not, which then leads many to simply conclude that either (1) men are better writers than women or (2) women’s writing appeals only to women while men’s writing appeals to us all!
Both, of course, are total BS.
I’m going to let others make the arguments about female work being under-represented and ignored or sequestered to the tables festooned in pink and feature words like “Leboutin” (I’ll post links at the end of this post, if you’re interested). Instead, I’m going to start in the middle of this conversation to talk about why I think there’s this division, this attitude, and what we can do about it. Continue reading »
We all could've written this one, no?
A close friend sent me an email the other day after having read a recent post I wrote for Being Pregnant. His note contained a link prefaced by some content which immediately captured my curiosity.
“After reading your post about how hyped up the triplets were upon your late evening return from the conference, and imagining how much fun that must have been for their exhausted parents, when I saw this link I immediately thought of you. Read about it, because it sounds like you could have written it.”
I immediately clicked over to discover the cover which appears on the left and was most curious to see whether or not it was a joke.
Books for children are rarely subtle. Points are made clearly, obviously, and over and over again. You may also experience a certain amount of repetition when it comes to the reading of these books, as children are sometimes known to request the same book more than once (or more than a hundred times).
In the process, you are likely to develop a deep understanding of the message the author was trying to convey. Sometimes so deep that you feel the point of the story has etched marks on the inside of your skull. If you’re an impatient and easily bored parent like me, you might find yourself wishing the books were just a little bit… shorter.
In which case you will appreciate the work of Dan Wilbur, who has compiled a collection of the world’s greatest books, distilled down to their very essences. As in: a newly revised title, meant to encapsulate the entire message of the book.
See, for example, his take on Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, at left.
See more kids’ favorites after the jump. Continue reading »
Writer of snark, heart-warming children's stories about acceptance.
My go-to children’s books for not-fitting-in themes are ones like Robert Munsch’s “Stephanie’s Ponytail” or anything by Todd Parr . A newish one, “Lonesome Puppy” is also pretty excellent. I’m curious about “My Princess Boy,” but I haven’t come across a copy. I’m open to suggestions for others.
One that I can almost guarantee won’t make it into the Amazon cart is “The Boy With Pink Hair” by gossip blogger Perez Hilton. Not that I have anything against boys with pink hair. I just like to keep snark and images of women who aren’t wearing underwear away from the kiddie corner. (I’m close-minded?)
Maybe deep down the guy is tender-hearted and has a mission more important than mocking bad facelifts. Reported publisher Penguin seems to think so. Here’s what they say about Perez Hilton’s kids book [via the LA Times]: Continue reading »
Doesn't your kid deserve better?
Young adult fiction shouldn’t be bad adult fiction. And, yes, Catcher in the Rye is bad. It appears to be the portrayal of an immature character, but really is the work of an immature person.
When grown adults write books that arrested adolescents relate to, they should probably be ashamed. Think of the musical parallel: How many 14-year-olds have sung along empathically to the pathetic-in-the-extreme lyrics of Pink Floyd’s The Wall? Please, go read the lyrics, and think about the fact that Roger Waters was in his mid/late 30s when he wrote them. Egads.
But we’re talking about Catcher in the Rye, and I invite you to give it another look too, not simply to trust your high school experience as still being what you’d conclude today. You’ve grown up, even if Salinger never did. Upon re-inspection, you’ll find Holden morally repugnant, sexist, and egoistic and the writing as a whole slapdash. You will not be impressed. Continue reading »
Reading young adult novels helps me sleep.
I’m a pretty serious reader. In my purse right now, I’m toting Mrs. Dalloway and a collection of Rilke’s letters. On my desk I have Tara Parker-Pope’s new book about the science of marriage, and Katherine Ellison’s memoir Buzz.
But I keep the good stuff on my bedside bookshelf. The haul right now: the first four Percy Jackson novels, Harry Potter 7 (which I’m rereading after the movie came out), and Into The Wild, a YA novel about a teenage girl who gets sucked into the world of fairy tales.
This is Mommy’s secret stash: a pile of YA books low on complex vocab words and high on adventure. I eat them like candy in the middle of the night, and dip into one when I’m lying down with a restless toddler for a midday nap.
I’m not alone. Essayist Melissa Taylor tells Babble that Percy Jackson is her therapist. YA novels not only fascinate her, they keep her sane.
Joslyn Gray 
Amber Doty 
Julianna Miner 
Monica Bielanko 
Sierra Black 
Meredith Carroll 
Carolyn Castiglia 
Sunny Chanel 
Madeline Holler 
Wendy Michaels 
Rebecca Odes 
Danielle Smith 
Danielle Sullivan 
Katherine Stone 
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