Posted by: Carlie Webber

Posted by: Carlie Webber

This past year, I read a lot of Young Adult books. How many? I lost count. Any number would be a bit meaningless, because I read many of those books multiple times.

This wasn't just any reading; I was on the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award Committee. The Printz Award is awarded annually by the American Library Association; it is for "a book that exemplifies literary excellence in young adult literature."

I read fabulous books and worked with brilliant librarians; and this past January, we met in Denver during the ALA Midwinter Conference and discussed books in person and ended up picking one Award Winner, Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta, and four Honor Books, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson; The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart; Nation by Terry Pratchett; and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. After the Awards were announced, I returned home, took a deep breath, and - didn't read a thing for two weeks.

Being on the Printz Committee was awesome. A dream come true. But it was reading unlike any reading I've ever done before. The first and most important thing, it wasn't about me and what I liked or didn't like. The Printz is about literary excellence, not "Liz's Favorite Books". Now, a year later, I have the award criteria memorized; but at first, I didn't. So in addition to printing out the criteria, I had post-it notes with short reminders of what to look for when I read the books. Now? I have those paragraphs memorized.

Second, the book mattered. Yes, upon occasion I read an Advance Reader's Copy. Sometimes I just couldn't resist and didn't want to wait months for the final book! ARCs are not the final books; spelling and grammar may be corrected, passages rewritten or changed. The copy that was read and reread, with marked pages and highlighted passages? That was the final copy, not the ARC.

Third, my time was not my own. There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of YA books published last year. Every time I wasn't reading one of these books, I felt guilty. I ignored the new Nora Roberts; my issues of Vanity Fair piled up, without even a glance at the photographs. "Do I dust, or read a book?" The answer was - read a book.

Fourth, rereading is important. Luckily, I've never been the type of reader where knowing the ending "spoils" the book for me. I've been known to read the first chapter of a book, and then the last, and then the rest of the book. On the other hand, I don't usually reread books. Oh, sometimes I'll revisit a childhood favorite to see if it holds up; or see if a book I read in high school or college is different from an older perspective. Other than that, I'm not one of those people who will read Pride & Prejudice every year. This past year, that all changed. I'd read once for me. I'd read again for the criteria. I'd read again, using fellow committee members' input. And again, and again.

Finally, all books and no breaks makes Liz a tired reader. Don't get me wrong; I love YA books. The first book I read after my two week break? YA. But, given how intense my reading was, I found that I needed something to give my mind a break so that I could jump into each book, fresh and ready to appreciate the new story and writer. So what did I use? TV. Not just any TV; reality TV. Watching a little America's Next Top Model or House Hunters was the perfect minivacation for my brain.

Now I'm back to reading for me. Not for a committee. Not for an Award. I can read whatever I want, including adult literature or books written 20 years ago. As I read my first book, I realized that my Printz reading habits were still with me. I noticed how the book met the Printz criteria, marked passages to share, wondered how a reread would be. I thought that being on the committee would end after a year; but instead, the deeper reading experience continues.

So how was being on the committee? Tiring. Exhausting. Time consuming. And awesome.

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

Posted by: Jen Robinson

Posted by: Kati Nolfi

On a recent trip to my friendly neighborhood anarchist bookstore I bought three books for young people and found a topic to write about. The intersection between my favorite subject areas-radical thought and literature for children and teens-is my rare joy so I was happy to see these three relatively new titles:  A Young People's History of the United States adapted by Rebecca Stefoff from Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States; As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do To Stay in Denial by Derrick Jensen and Stephanie McMillan; and Hey, Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People by Anne Elizabeth Moore and Megan Kelso.

I am interested in independent booksellers' selections for kids and teens, especially when libraries are clearing away dusty old dandelions in favor of plastic roses. Public library collections may still have some out of print and weird old volumes but they more and more tend to exclude radical and esoteric titles in favor of middling bestsellers. While indie booksellers' selection of politically leftist titles may be better than most public libraries, the titles tend to be more sneakily subversive or liberal than brazenly revolutionary, such as the quite good books on this list:
http://radicalseeksenlightenment.blogspot.com/2008/06/radical-childrens-books-reference-list.html

And why are there so few radical books for young people? And what does it mean that booksellers provide more materials on marginalized topics than the supposed repository of free information on "all points of view on current and historical issues" (according to the Library Bill of Rights)?

So much literature for young people is didactic and moralistic to inculcate values in our malleable and pigtailed- to grow them up right. Depending on our politics we can construe a particular pedagogy as refreshing or poisonous. So even if the reader agrees with the agenda it must be gracefully delivered without being cringeworthy and heavy handed. In one of his earlier books, Herbert Kohl wrote about his students' resistance to attempts to radicalize them. For me, anarchism's inherent anti-authoritarianism is about acknowledging the agency of everyone to come to radicalism without paternalist teachings. Becoming a radical activist or developing any political feeling happens when life experience and education coalesce, usually around young adulthood. In this spirit, I wonder if subtly progressive books like Where the Wild Things Are or Mole Music are more effective than more overt titles like The Little Squatters' Handbook. While I am desperate for more radical titles, I sometimes find that children's literature that instructs counter to the dominant culture is in danger of sermonizing or congratulating, either by scolding hopeful converts or offering secret handshakes.

I wonder if the current political climate is breeding titles for a young progressive and activist readership. There are graphic novels: Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman; Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History; and A People's History of American Empire and there are books on animals, the environment, and peace:  Tin Lizzie, Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion, Wild Animals in Captivity, and Why War is Never a Good Idea.

Do these books collectively herald the uselessness of adults to solve these problems and the concomitant burden on young folks?

Of the three radical books I bought, As the World Burns may be the most accessible as it looks like a Powerpuff Girls' presentation of Anarchism 101 (with a healthy dose of primitivism). While the illustrations have been criticized for their, um, primitiveness, I love Stephanie McMillan's twee but still fierce style-reminiscent of Hope for the Flowers- with a multitude of animals and identifiable villains. The text is sometimes repetitive and sloppy and too many words are used when pictures would suffice. I found this title to be life changing for me, but it is problematic, seductive, glamorous and simplistic; our questions are left unsatisfied. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if life were this simple, the problems we face so easily solvable? Every cell in my body wants for recycling to save the day, wants for shorter showers to save enough water for the rivers to run free…we will go quietly, meekly, to the end of the world, if only you allow us to believe that buying low energy light bulbs will save us," laments Jensen. These are significant thoughts.

The end of the book is messy and the animal uprising is more than a little ridiculous.  There is also no serious race/class/able-bodied privilege analysis.  How will folks without privilege fight the revolution with their bunny pals? This is however an apt satire of books like Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming and the kid's version of An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming which cheers kids to "save the world" (really…all of it?) by bullying their parents into recycling and changing their lightbulbs. As the World Burns untidily unravels the liberal truths of lifestylism and pacifism and refocuses on the guilt of industry and corporations.

I confess that I bought Hey, Kidz! Buy This Book because of the glorious Megan Kelso. The pictures here are illustrative of the book's theme and are also darn cute but there are only a few and the book generally sags from too much text and too many appendices and useless cluttered sidebars. Moore's tone can sometimes be too pandering and snarky. But! The message of media literacy and critical thinking is a crucial one for young folks navigating through the sea of logos and brands and advertising. Moore writes of kids' vulnerability and manipulation by big media. Her analysis of the harmful influence of ads (they "flatter, confuse, emulate and research" kids) and marketing and the suffocation of indie and DIY media is spot on.

While the "Try This At Home" sections are awesome, her methods for solving the problem of intrusive media are mostly ineffective. This is always the failure with this kind of book. Voting, consumer choices, and writing letters to congress people won't get the job done, I'm afraid. But she does cover the many means of activism from graffiti to pirate radio to street theater and zines. And she also does not feel shy about advocating semi-illegal acts.

A Young People's History of the United States is an attractive little volume and a good choice for adults (ahem) who had difficulty getting through Zinn's original inspiration for the adaptation. The images are in an unfortunate sepia color and there are not many of them. Unavoidably perhaps the text is dry and I cannot imagine many teens reading this if it is not assigned. It would be a great alternative to high school history texts. Zinn's message of history, community, racism, heroism and anti-colonialism is so important for people of all ages-especially young people-to learn and relearn.

Our next step is to purchase these flawed but necessary additions to radical kid lit for our library collections!

Works Cited

Burns, Loree Griffin. Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam and the Science of Ocean Motion
Cordelia and Ziggy. The Little Squatters' Handbook
David, Laurie and Cambria Gordon. Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming
Drummond, Allan. Tin Lizzie
Jensen, Derrick and Stephanie McMillan. As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can
Do To Stay in Denial
Laidlaw, Rob. Wild Animals in Captivity
McPhail, David. Mole Music
Moore, Anne Elizabeth and Megan Kelso. Hey, Kidz! Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People
Paulus, Trina. Hope for the Flowers
Pekar, Harvey and Gary Dumm. Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History
Rudahl, Sharon. Dangerous Woman: The Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman
Sendak, Maurice. Where the Wild Things Are
Walker, Alice and Stefano Vitale. Why War is Never a Good Idea
Zinn, Howard and Mike Konopacki. The People's History of American Empire
Zinn, Howard and Rebecca Stefoff. A Young People's History of the United States

Posted by: Kati Nolfi

This is my last Shelf Space entry. I’m not going to lie and say that I’m sad to go – as it turns out the whole deadline every week thing isn’t really for me. It makes me a little crazy. Good thing I didn’t use that writing degree as a journalist.

You’ve patiently listened to me prater on about vaguely book- and blog-related topics for three weeks. For my final week, I thought I’d turn it over to a few friends of mine; people I met through this electronic medium and for whom blogging means more to them just rambling with an audience (like me). They are all published – or soon will be. Three of them are authors, the fourth an illustrator. They are all at different places in their publishing careers. Because of that, blogging isn’t something that they do just because they have big mouths and no social life (like me). Blogging for them, one would assume, must also contain at least a smidgen of self-promotion (that all blogging is self-promotion is an entirely different debate). I thought I’d ask what it’s like to blog from their end.

I roped Tanita S. Davis, Elizabeth Dulemba, Sarah Miller and Colleen Mondor into answering a handful of questions about what it’s like to be a creative professional – and a blogger. Here are their answers:

JP: Were you already published when you started your blog? How far along were you in your career? Did you have an agent?

SM: Sorta kinda. I started blogging publicly in late May and Miss Spitfire was released in July.

TD: I was published, but only in magazines and at a small house, and the two chapter books I’d written had already gone out of print! I had no agent, and was just finishing my MFA.

CM: I was published several years ago with some nonfic articles on Alaska aviation. I started the blog after Bookslut, , but I found my agent via the connections I had made there. I would say I was advanced in my career as far knowing my subject, but just starting out in terms of publication.

ED:I tried some experimental blogs before I was published, but didn’t really have the hang of it until after my first picture book came out.

Why did you start? Why do you continue?

SM: I’d been blogging privately on MySpace for a year or so, and more and more, my entries centered around my own personal book-news. By then, I was working with Little Willow to build a website, so the public blog was probably an offshoot of that. I figured there were people besides my 25 MySpace buds who might be interested in my literary goings-on. (My 93-year-old grandpa doesn’t have a MySpace profile, but he has been known to look at my Blogger page from time to time.)

ED: I thought it would be a good place to document my successes, visits and book signings, if for nobody else, then for myself. And that’s exactly what it has become. So, along with being a good resource for others, it’s also a great memory book for me. By labeling and bookmarking my posts, my blog has become a good resource for other budding illustrators; I get e-mails all the time thanking me for the information I share. I also link to particular posts from other areas of my site. For instance, most events on my calendar link to posts describing how the event went - hopefully it also shares good information for those looking to hire me for their own event.

CM: I was e-mailing with lots of bloggers and authors due to the Bookslut column and several urged me to start a blog of my own. Primarily I would thank Cecil Castellucci and Gwenda Bond for being supportive in the beginning. I did it to become part of the larger literary community that I had only scratched the surface with via the column. I continue because I have met so many friends and found so many good books via the lit blogosphere.

TD: Have to quote A. Fortis from our first post in 2005 on this one: “As writers we already have a natural tendency to want to foist our words on the unsuspecting public, so why not start a blog?” The blog was started – as a team blog. There were supposed to be five of us. It was launched as a means to keep in touch with our writing group – thus the tagline “the WritingYA Web Log.” The original group in WritingYA petered out after about a year, and the myriad people who had faithfully promised to be a part of the blog never materialized. It was down to A. Fortis and me, and we held on grimly for a while, and then less grimly, as time went on. After the first six or eight months, it got easier. We finally found the community – and discovered quite a few blogs who were already successfully doing what we wanted to do – the Greenlake Library Blog, Fuse #8, the kind of frighteningly smart Chasing Ray, Big A, little a, Book Buds, Paper Tigers, Chicken Spaghetti – a whole bunch of nice librarians, booksellers and readers who were communicating about a topic that was near and dear to us. We connected – and we still connect – and we have changed the way we think and talk and share about books. We’re much more confident about it now – we know all you other Word Nerds are out there.

SM: Now that I’m not a bookseller anymore, blogging makes me feel like I’m still in touch with the reading world, and that I still have a voice. I particularly enjoy having an outlet to spread buzz for books I like. It’s not as personal as hand selling to individual customers, but at least I can still hold up a great book and holler, “Lookit!” Plus, through blogging I’ve ’met’ some really nifty people -- Jackie, Miss Erin, Little Willow, Barbara O’Connor, Kirby Larson, to name a few -- and this lets me keep in touch with them, as well as a few old pals from my Halfway Down the Stairs days. There’s a cozy feeling of community in the kidlitosphere, and even though I don’t travel widely through cyberspace, I like my little neighborhood.

JP: Has your blog changed over time? How so?

CM: I’ve gotten a bit more comfortable talking about my personal writing then I was in the beginning and I get a lot more feedback now on many things I post about.

ED: My blog has evolved over time, and now I couldn’t imagine not having it, but I no longer worry about what I’m going to write about, as there seems to be an endless stream of subjects I can cover. Once you get on a roll with the theme of your blog, it would seem it starts to drive itself.

TD: Oh, definitely, yes. We neither of us were savvy with the links and the HTML, for one thing. And our topics were narrower – within the scope of our own opinions. We didn’t read other blogs as much and tended to stick to our little corner of opinion. Now we’re both fairly widely read about young adult literature and read reviews and interviews and discussions from newspapers, other blogs, scholarly journals, etc. Our opinions are broader, and our involvement within the blogging children’s literature community is much greater, and our blog topics reflect that involvement. And also? We can rock the HTML. We can make our lines scroll AND blink. (We be unutterably cool now.)

SM: At the very beginning, it was pretty much a festival of Miss-Spitfire-and-me. I was mostly blogging to keep my friends & family informed, but before long my audience expanded into strangers. Longabout August, I noticed *I* was getting tired of posting every piece of Spitfire-news that passed across my radar. It made me a little self-conscious, even. So I spread out, with more reviews, bookshop anecdotes, and The Week in Hand Sales feature -- stuff I hoped could be interesting even if you didn’t know me personally. Now that the bookstore’s gone, I’ve had to adjust and fine tune again. State of the TBR Pile took over the weekly hand selling totals, but I still miss being able to tell stories from the frontlines of bookselling. Folks seem to enjoy my WIP Progress Report sidebar, but I haven’t decided yet how much of the process itself I’m willing to share.

JP: I loved The Week in Hand Sales. I’ll miss that.

JP: What are you hoping to come from blogging?

SM: When you get right down to it, I like keeping my finger in the pie. Besides, it’s just plain fun to jabber about books.

ED: I hope to pay it forward a bit in my career, which is why I like to write about what I’ve learned. I also want to drive traffic to my site and my books. I’d like to have readers who know all my books, not just one!

CM: It’s mostly connections that I look for via the site - the chance to meet more people who enjoy literature and promoting literature like I do.

TD: The payoff for me in blogging is community connection and involvement. As a writer, this is crucial – simply because writing can be really isolating and lonely and devoid of a daily sense of accomplishment. By now, everyone is quoting the statistics that blogging is good for people’s health I don’t know about all of that, but I do know that blogging keeps me reading – and reading makes me a better, more thoughtful writer.

JP: How do you think blogging has affected your career? Has it?

SM: I’m not aware of many concrete effects. More people come to my website through my blog than any other source, but I don’t know if that translates or snowballs into any other measurable effects. I think it’s interesting that my blog-fans and book-fans are not necessarily the same group -- I’ve heard people say, “I love her blog, but I haven’t read her book yet.” That was unexpected -- I get a big kick out of it, and it’s also good to know blogging keeps readers aware of me even though I’ve been taking my dear sweet ever-loving time getting Book #2 out into the world.

ED: I have lots of subscribers and people who respond regularly to my posts, so my blog has definitely drawn attention - Especially since I started “Coloring Page Tuesdays,” hits to my site have increased exponentially. Many other bloggers now link to me, which I think also drives traffic my way. Of course, I don’t think I’ll ever know the full breadth of benefits, but there definitely seems to be momentum related to my blog.

CM: This is a tricky one as so many of the people I’ve met were through Bookslut first - I can never be sure how much of a component Chasing Ray has been in my career. I think the site mostly helps in that it is a way to reach out to people who are interested in my writing and that certainly is always a positive.

TD: I don’t know yet… I don’t feel like I can yet say that I have a “career.” I’ll get back to you next year at this time and let you know! In all seriousness, it gives me a thrill to know that there are people ready and eager to buy my books. I am tremendously grateful – and sort of elated and horrified and hope it’s good enough and- -- okay, enough of my neuroses. If there’s any way in which blogging has affected my career, it’s putting a face to some of my readers. Yay, and …yikes. On the other hand, I now know a whole lot of people who can’t review my book! Which is a potential negative, from some people’s point of view. I’m not worried about that, I’m just grateful for the friends I haven’t yet met who are nevertheless cheering me on. That means so much.

JP: Has your agent or any industry professionals (editors, art directors, etc) expressed any opinions about your blogging?

SM: My editor reads my blog, though I don’t know for sure how regularly. I think it’s a way of vicariously touching base. My agent doesn’t read my blog unless I send her a link to something newsworthy. Other than that, nada.

ED: From industry professionals, I get more responses to my e-newsletters than I do from my blog - but that’s another subject! One of my most recent posts covered the 1st Annual SCBWI Southern Breeze Children’s Book Illustrator’s Show (which I put together in my new role as Southern Breeze Illustrators’ Coordinator). The response from everybody involved has been tremendous. Where else would this event have been covered so thoroughly?

TD: My agent would love to talk about my blog – he’d love to be able to point people to it, but, it’s not just about me or my books, and so I kind of feel he’s a little confused as to why I bother. My agent HAS thought that some of my Summer Blog Blast Tour interviews and Under Radar Reads coverage has been nice – mainly because I actually highlighted another writer who is one of his clients. He was thrilled. But other than that, nope – the blog is my little semi-anonymous corner of the world, and I don’t think anyone particularly cares about it but me and my peeps.

CM: My agent is focused on my book(s) pretty much - she likes that I have a site and a column as they show me to be dedicated to spreading the word on my work. Beyond Michele though (Michele Rubin - agent), I have engaged in dozens of email exchanges with authors/illustrators/publicists and editors through mentions at my blog of different books I’m reviewing and also over the multi blog projects I’ve worked on (Summer & Winter Blog Blast Tours, Guys Lit Wire, One Shots, Recommendations Under the Radar, etc). Everyone seems to be very excited over the possibilities of organization they see in the blogosphere and through the work I’ve done in that vein, I’ve gotten a lot of support. Also, several editors have contacted me directly after they’ve read entries on my AK aviation memoir as well, and asked that I forward their info to my agent so she can be sure to send a manuscript to them.

CM: Basically, the blog helps a lot if you’re a writer, especially one just starting out. I will add though that it means nothing if you don’t reach out to the larger lit blogosphere community - you have to work at it if you want to be noticed.

Tanita S. Davis’ first book for teens, a la Carte is out on June 10th (I remember this because it’s my birthday).

Elizabeth Dulemba has beautifully illustrated a healthy handful of children’s books. Sarah Miller is finishing up her second novel, and Colleen Mondor should be turning in her final revision of her memoir this week, before turning her attention back to the other two writing projects she has going. All of them are far better, far more thoughtful bloggers than I am, so I hope you take a look at them if you aren’t already familiar.

Thank you ladies, and thank you ForeWord for hosting me!

Posted by: Jackie Parker

Posted by: Jackie Parker

Posted by: Jackie Parker

I decided to become a Youth Service Librarian because I wanted to share my love of reading with young people. When dreaming of my future career while slogging through my MLIS program, I envisioned myself quietly overseeing dedicated young readers as they pursued knowledge, enlightenment, and entertainment. I am a tad embarrassed about how naïve and old-fashioned I was. Luckily, my misconceptions about the librarian job description did not survive my first week on the job in a real-life public library.

Most of the children I work with come from troubled homes. Their parents are usually unwilling or unable to provide any kind of guidance for their children, so the parental duties are left hanging until a responsible adult decides to take them up. Most public libraries are awash with unsupervised children and teens, and librarians are obligated to assume to role of caretaker and disciplinarian in order to keep the peace. That is just one of the many things they don’t think to tell you in library school.

During the course of my employment at the library, I have had to do some things that my pre-librarian self would never have guessed. I have had to pull brawling kids off each other on more than one occasion. I constantly admonish teenagers for calling each other “ugly”, “ignorant”, or a variety of other names that I don’t recognize but am pretty sure are derogatory. I have tried to explain why violence is wrong and why every person should be treated with respect. I have launched a campaign to reinstate “please” and “thank you” into their vocabularies. I have tried to instill a sense of self-worth in them all. And all the while, I have tried to inspire in them a love of reading. Not an easy task!

Contrary to the two-dimensional librarians of yesteryear, today’s librarians have a responsibility to foster not just the intellectual development of children and teens, but the social and emotional development as well. While most librarians take up this mantle willingly, I think the job would be that much sweeter if we could know for certain that our considerable efforts have the power to turn a life around. Do they listen to us? Do they remember what we say? Does our good opinion factor into their decision-making process? And most of all, will we ever convince them that reading is fun?

There are times when it seems that the kids see me as a piece of furniture, but I have to remind myself that because of my close involvement it is difficult to see clearly. Several times in the past year I have had to take a step back from the situation in order to look at the big picture and make sense of it all. When the times get tough and I begin to forget why I ever chose to become a librarian, I reflect the times when I have succeeded (although they are always fewer than I would prefer). I remember all the times when I have been able to get a reluctant reader to sit down with a book, all the times that a child has asked me “please” when before they would have demanded, and especially all the times I have seen some of the local children “play librarian” when they think I’m not looking.

Someone recently reminded me that small adjustments are the least painful and the most successful. Although this person was not referring to library services, I think all librarians should take this aphorism to heart. It is the little changes I see every day, even the ones so subtle they are barely noticeable, that convince me that librarians have the power to inspire, teach, and lead in many different ways (not just by shelving dusty tomes and memorizing the Dewey Decimal System).

Posted by: Eva Mays

Posted by: Pam Coughlan

Posted by: Sara Wingate Gray

Whether or not you agree with the data and issues in the report, it raises the obvious question. What can we do to encourage reading? To encourage not just the act of reading, but to encourage a love of reading as well? To those of us who love reading and stories, it seems a no-brainer. Reading is fun, of course people want to do it!

Reading is fun. And I think that should be enough reason to encourage reading, and to praise reading, and to value it when we, and kids, read. Linking reading to increased employment opportunities and civic duty may be necessary to get press attention or involve employers and other organizations, but c’mon; does a ten year old care about that? Should they? No; they shouldn’t read “because I will be a better person.” They shouldn’t read “because then I will make more money.” They should read because it’s fun.

So, how to make reading fun? Is that even possible, or are some people just readers and others non-readers? People are as varied as books; there is no one size fits all approach. That said, here are some of my ideas. Since I am a childrens/ teen services librarian, I am, of course, thinking about encouraging kids and teens to read. But seriously? I think these things are true for anyone, regardless of age. And when I say “your kids,” they could be your own children, the children in your classroom, other family members.

Value Reading. We often hear about valuing books; but what about the act of reading? When the house is dusty, the yard needs mowing, laundry is piling up, where on the list of “things that need to get done” does reading fall? People looking to get into physical shape are told to exercise several times a week and make it a priority. How often do you make reading a priority?

Read yourself. Modeling that reading is fun is the best way to show others that it is fun. Have books in the house. Read books in front of your kids. And discuss books; as people in the kidlitosphere will tell you, half the fun is reading the book. The other half? Talking about the book with someone.

Respect the reading people are already doing. Saying “that genre / series / author stinks, now here is a good book” wins over no-one. But then again, I think the way to win over people is to be nice, not mean. Want to see a kid get excited? Ask them about the book they are reading; ask them, why do you like it; and finally, ask them what books they would recommend to you. Nothing beats an excited kid telling an adult what the adult should read “because it’s really, really good.”

Read what your kids are reading. Before you start complaining about the time, or not being interested, or having other things to do, think of what you are asking your kids to do. If you want them to, say, read, classics, they’re thinking “not interested, no time.” So now, you turn around and say the same thing back to them? Not cool. Reading the books your kids are reading gives you a better understanding of what that book is about and what your kid wants from books. It also shows kids that you value their choices and allows you to discuss the books with them.

Discuss books with respect. Respect the book and the reader. Don’t talk about books in a “homework” way; talk about books in an “omg, this was so awesome, I have to share it with someone,” or “I cannot believe that ending.” There is a time and a place for critical examination of books and language and reading; but if your goal is to get people to know reading=fun, now is not the time to tear apart their favorite book, making snarky jokes about the writing. “Oh you like that? Wasn’t it done so much better by this other author?” Nope; the goal is not you showing off your book knowledge, but getting someone else excited and engaged about what they read. Discussing books is one reason to read the books your kids choose; it gives you a common experience. You may find some gems amongst the books your kids are reading; or, you may find what they want from a book and have a better idea of what to recommend for further reading.

Alternate formats are good. For some kids, a movie version of Moby Dick watched at nine and a graphic novel of Moby Dick read at eleven is just the right foundation to make that high school required reading fun. (For the record? That was me. Yes, I loved Moby Dick!) Knowing the basic structure and characters helped tremendously, and this is especially true of books written long ago enough to seem to be written in a foreign language. Watch the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice instead of reading the book? No; but watch it for the visual clues about class that a modern reader may miss? Yes.

Covers Matter. Every reader knows that “don’t judge a book by a cover” is a lie. Covers matter; so if you are going to invest in books, get ones that look good and appealing. Keep in mind, for some kids, the appeal is a dusty old volume dug up from the attic.

Keep it fun. We’re not talking about homework or something someone “has” to do. Turn any of this into “have to” or punishment and you’ve lost the battle. Making every Tuesday night “the night we discuss books” can end up with everyone (you included) dreading Tuesday nights.

I don’t think there is any “magic bullet”. A reader may be born at age three, or thirteen, or thirty. That “one book” that provides the “click” moment of reading=fun could come anywhere, at any time. Be ready for it!

Posted by: Elizabeth Burns

I’ve already addressed what a review looks and smells like in a previous post, but recently I’ve been coming across some ethical conundrums, hurt feelings and other assorted downers that ensnare new reviewers from time to time.

I wondered if maybe I hadn’t gotten too far ahead of myself: what if you’re just starting out and don’t know what to expect? You just signed up for a shiny new blog, you’re dutifully trying to post every day, you attract a few readers, wrangle a few free books.

And then what? I asked around, and in particular, I wanted to hear from experienced bloggers how they faced an empty screen, and what went into their reviewing process.

The people I e-mailed are from the organizing committee over at Cybils, or the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (http://blog.cybils.com) now underway. They all have solid credentials as bloggers, having been at this for at least a couple days.

Online reviewers’ unique issues

Their problems finding words to describe other people’s words certainly aren’t new, but there are some novel problems in our online instant-reaction land when the white-hot flames of irate fans are always a mere mouse-click away.

There’s also a profound difference in temperament and training. When print critics come under fire, they’re usually bolstered by editors with ice in their veins. Most bloggers only have their spouse’s shoulder to sob on.

And kidlit bloggers, who often come from the ranks of librarians and teachers, are by nature a helpful lot. They aim to please. Send them a few books and they’ll review them. Send them a ton of books and they’ll review those too. Overwhelm them with your entire frontlist, plus everybody else’s frontlist, and they’ll slog through the stack, panicking lest they overlook one.

This is not good for having a balanced life, or getting supper ready on time, or preserving what’s left of your eyesight (not to mention sanity).

Another huge problem seems to be staying original when many people have reviewed the same material, or when the publisher sends out press packets with concise, pithy summaries of the book already. Is that stuff fair game?

I asked what makes for good, basic reviewing habits:

“Keep the audience in mind”

Kelly Herold, Big A little a (http://kidslitinformation.blogspot.com/):

1. I always throw away publisher material. Always. I find it can cloud my judgment if it isn’t completely a waste of time, which it often is. I especially find publisher info on picture books annoying. Why do I want 2 pages of text on a book with fewer words? I don’t.

2. Keep the plot summary to one paragraph.

3. In my case, I like to keep my reviews to 3-5 paragraphs tops.

4. Always quote from the book if possible so readers can get an idea of the author’s style.

5. Keep audience in mind: who is the book for? age range?

6. Anne has taught me that if it is a picture book, you have to learn to think critically about the illustrations as well. This has not been easy for me, but I’m working on it.

Ending? Don’t mention it. No, really. Don’t.

Jackie Parker, Interactive Reader (http://interactivereader.blogspot.com/):

The only thing I look at on the publisher’s accompanying propaganda is the contact information for the publicist. Never know when that will come in handy...

I started to avoid reading jacket flaps or reviews past the first paragraph because I found they often gave way too much information away. My cardinal rule (I have many, but this one hasn’t been mentioned yet) is DON’T FREAKIN’ GIVE AWAY THE ENDING. I don’t know HOW many times I’ve heard people booktalk or whatever a book and give away way too much information. If you are going to have spoilers, say so. As a reader, I’m going to get really irritated if you don’t warn me. As a blogger librarian it’s just bad form. It seems like a no-brainer, but I still run into people who do it.

NEGATIVE REVIEWS: NOT THE ‘KISS OF DEATH.’

Sheila Ruth, Wands And Worlds (http://www.wandsandworlds.com/blog1/):

Just a comment about negative reviews from a publisher perspective. Most of the advice I’ve seen for publishers says that a negative review is still a good review (unless it totally trashes a book). It’s like the old saw that any publicity is good publicity. And a book on amazon with all five-star reviews is suspicious, whereas a book with a lot of reviews, some good, some bad, looks like a genuine thing. The martial arts book I published has mixed reviews from 2 to 5 stars (I’ve discovered that martial artists are very picky people) but it sells well anyway, and most of the sales come from Amazon. So a negative review on Amazon isn’t the kiss of death. I think *publishers* for the most part understand this, but many authors don’t. It’s naturally harder for them to be objective, because it’s their baby.

HAVE A WRITTEN REVIEW POLICY

Jen Robinson, Jen Robinson’s Book Page (http://jkrbooks.typepad.com/):

● Have a written review policy that you can refer to, in which you make clear whether or not you review everything that you receive, and that you don’t guarantee positive reviews. This helps to keep everyone’s expectations in line.

● If possible, notify the author and/or publisher when you do post a review, especially if it’s a mixed review. This increases your level of professionalism, and can help keep the author/publisher from feeling sand-bagged by running across a mixed review unexpectedly.

● If quoting from ARC or galley, make sure to specify that. This protects you and the publisher, should the final book differ from what you quoted. - Indicate the source from which you received the book, and be up-front about any particular ties that you might have with the author. I believe that being up-front about these sorts of things is the best guard against people who question one’s objectivity.

HAVE A BIT OF A THICK SKIN

Liz Burns, A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy (http://yzocaet.blogspot.com/):

● Have a bit of a thick skin; yes, easier said than done. But, if we say authors should have a thick skin, we, as writers, should have a thick skin also when someone disagrees with our reviews.

● You won’t convince the author that you’re right; chances are, the author won’t convince you that you’re wrong. (but, if you made a mistake ... That’s another thing entirely. If your review said, “what an odd action for an 12 year old orphan” and the author says, “interesting, except it’s an 10 year old and the parents are divorced,” own your mistake. Even if the change is now, “what an odd action for a 10 year old whose parents are divorced.”)

● Galleys and arcs do change before publication. If you don’t like something based on a galley or arc, you owe it to the author and to your readers to wait for the real book because it is very possible that what you didn’t like was fixed.

AVOID SNARK ATTACKS

Sarah Stevenson, Finding Wonderland (http://writingya.blogspot.com/):

Personally, I think that there’s never a bad time for diplomacy and tact in a review, positive or negative. I learned that very early on when I used to write a weird websites column and I made a snarky comment about a site I wrote up...and they wrote back to me saying they were sorry I thought their site could use improvement but they had a limited budget (it was a site at a university, for a robot arm you could move via the web) and that was all they could do given their means...and I felt soooo bad.

A FEW LAST WORDS

There’s always more advice to give on getting started in book blogging and reviewing. In fact, the most recent Kidlit Blog Carnival was about precisely that compiled by the witty Pam Coughlin at MotherReader (http://www.motherreader.com/2007/11/november-carnival-of-children.html).

There’s plenty there from around the blogosphere.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t add my own $.02 to the discussion. I second everything already said rely on your own voice and not the publisher’s, value diplomacy but be firm and would add a few things I learned the hard way:

Don’t blog your way to a stronger eyeglass prescription (I’ve upped mine three times since starting book buds). It’s very expensive to go blind.

You can ignore all other chores but supper. You family shouldn’t starve for food or your company, even if they must climb over piles of laundry to dine with you.

● If snark is important to you, develop a style that’s at least clever. Try metaphor, exaggeration, new turns of phrase--anything but plain bitchiness, which is so overdone as to be entirely predictable. If I can finish your mean, foul sentence for you, you’re boring me.

● Take advantage of automatic posting, if your blog host has that lifesaving feature. I write all my reviews on Saturdays and let the nice folks at TypePad do the rest. I then resume my regularly scheduled life.

● Get a life. Eat moderately and exercise often. Stop smoking. Be nice to small animals and old people. Say your prayers. Remember that you’re human and not an extension of your keyboard. Of course, I’m terrible about all of the above, so do as I say and not as I do ...

I’ve been thrilled at this opportunity to blog for ForeWord, and am sorry my month ended after the traditional four weeks. I was hoping we could stretch November out until, oh, Memorial Day at least.

I wish you all happy reviewing and/or blogging, and a very Happy Holidays.

Posted by: Anne Boles Levy

There seems to be a whole mess of bad, awful, terrifying mishaps that can go wrong in cyberspace when all you’re trying to do is pick a favorite book. Sure, it sounds easy. You set up a blog, ask a couple acquaintances to do reviews, chat about likes and dislikes, and ta-dah ... We have a winner! Just like that.

Only it’s not at all like that. We—the other organizers and myself—ventured into unknown territory when we founded the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards (our friends call us Cybils) that recently opened its second season at Cybils.com. But our success was hardly assured, and there are, I think, lessons for anyone believing that the Internet’s newness means that old rules don’t apply.

To start with, if human nature is a constant, as so many philosophers and writing coaches tell us, what to make of all the introverts, dreamers and unrepentant bookworms who make up the core kidlit bloggers? Could we all rouse from our armchairs long enough to hold a contest?

Would we all play fair—ignoring marketing hype to offer a level playing field for independent publishers?

And would it, in the end, have any impact at all, or just dissipate in a wave of self-congratulatory linkfests? Would our tiny craft ever take off?

It all started with a smart-alecky comment I left on someone else’s blog last year, after complaints that the Newbery's were too snooty and the Quills, well, not snooty enough. I said us blogging upstarts should up and start our own contest. Kelly Herold, whose blog it was, turned out to be one of these organized types and took me up on it.

We didn’t need a mission statement; our sense of purpose grew as we hashed out matters in comments and emails. Quality and popularity would both count; literary merit and kid appeal would be weighed equally. We would be democratic and elitist both. Everybody would nominate books, but only bloggers would judge. And the bloggers would be, well, just about anybody.

Our first cosmic obstacle was our name. I couldn’t stand any of the suggestions, like “mad hatters” or the “blogburys.” Hitting this head-on cost us precious momentum – hours, maybe even days, after the idea germinated, when time is measured in nanoseconds in the forget-it-yesterday blogosphere. I decided on Cybils when it seemed to appease both the cutesy and serious types.

I mentioned asteroids and black holes. The asteroids would be the organizational nightmares you don’t know are headed your way. They veered into our path over seemingly small things, like counting six genres until the poetry and graphic novels fans griped. All those genres needed their own chiefs and two sets of judges. Where would we find so many people? With blogs? About kids’ books?

Kelly had a blogroll like nobody’s business, sort of like an electronic rolodex, and she leaned hard on folks to join up instead of crabbing in the comments sections. Once we had a full slate of 80+ volunteers, we needed little things like a domain name and a hub to gather and do all the contest-related stuff, whatever that would mean. And then there were listservs and databases and all kinds of mind-numbing particulars that have gotten all the mention they need.

Even so, we headed straight for a black hole. Setting the contest up on a blog sounded cheap and easy, and it kept us in the blogging spirit. We listed each genre as a separate post and waited for nominations to roll in from the public. And ... then what? I was staring at three months of a dead blog – utterly empty space – until the short lists were announced.

How to fill the void? I wasn’t ready to write yet another blog, and Cybils wasn’t about me. And what was there to say, really?

Meanwhile, we’d gathered all these smart, witty, similarly obsessed people, and they all had opinions. On everything – not just books. People battled about ethics, about whether to keep blogging about the books they were judging, about whether we should solicit review copies from publishers; all big, potentially contest-wrecking issues. More asteroids.

Like many introverts, I like to think I have very little ego, which actually makes leadership tough when you’re determined that everything go all friendly-like. No hurt feelings, no tough talk ... and nothing gets done. And I’m new to awards. I never won any, unless you count a good citizenship certificate for being pretty much the only kid in my high school to never get busted. A dull life suits my bookish self just fine.

So I joked that Kelly and I were benevolent dictators, but the term gave us cover to step in when things veered off course. Sure, you all can blog about these books, just don’t tip your hand, voting-wise. Send me links and I’ll post excerpts at Cybils. Voila! The black hole gets filled and an asteroid avoided. Hey, y’think the publishers will send review copies? Yes! More disaster averted.

Complaints rolled in as often as compliments, but if you’re going to insist you have no ego then you listen and you nod and you keep updating your FAQs and revising the rules and go from there.

On Feb. 14, we announced nine winners and 5,000 people leaped onto our blog to end the suspense. Five of the winning titles came from independent publishers, including a graphic novel from a publisher who never got back to us about review copies. Both rounds of judges had to hunt the book down in comics shops or online.

An organized “buy Cybils” push saw dramatic drops in the Amazon sales ranks (a good thing) for many winning titles. We were written up in the online or newsletter versions of Publisher’s Weekly, School Library Journal and of course ForeWord. Even GalleyCat, a big publishing industry blog, threw us a shout out.

Some lessons learned: our fancy-schmancy press releases were never picked up by the press. They did better posted at blogs and in online forums. The “viral” marketing that so many business gurus talk about really does work in non-traditional markets like ours, but only when the people spreading your message have something more than hype or buzz or vague promises or stock options to blather about. Keep it real, and people will come.

I keep seeing Cybils mentioned in Amazon or GoodReads reviews – usually footprints left by a supporter. There’s even a Cybils mention on Wikipedia, under Melanie Watt’s page (her picture book, Scaredy Squirrel, from Kids Can Press, was a winner).

Kelly and I learned to keep it simple, stupid: neither of us is judging this year while we’re busily zapping those asteroids. Kelly’s most arduous task is nabbing review copies: after publishers rightfully bellyached about being hit up for free books at every turn, we’re submitting one master list via one person. Nobody assaults authors or pesters publicists; all contacts are via Kelly or her henchwoman in charge of smoothing our relations with the independents, the mercilessly well-organized Sheila Ruth of Wands and Worlds (http://www.wandsandworlds.com/blog1/), herself an independent publisher.

And while chatting with your co-workers seems a fairly basic Management 101 thing to do, it’s tough when it’s all online. So Kelly and I grabbed a chance to meet some of our virtual co-conspirators at a kidlit blogging conference in October; we had no agenda and opened the floor to questions. That could’ve been a disaster!

Instead, we walked away amazed at both the great sense and intense passion of our volunteers, who get paid in nothing but links, a few free books and ample gratitude. Their feedback is gradually being incorporated into every stage of the contest, from the website’s readability to the judging criteria and much, much else.

Yes, we’re back; nominations opened Oct. 1 and close the day before Thanksgiving. We let everybody who can click their way to the Cybils blog nominate a single, solitary, lonely book in each of eight genres, from picture books up to young adult, and of course graphic novels and poetry. We’ve gotten better about enforcing our few rules, and are still coasting on readers’ goodwill and generally honest nature.

We expanded our roster of volunteers up to 90 bloggers, and have made good on promises to include a large percentage of newcomers so we don’t become cliquish.

Once again, New Year’s and Valentine’s Days will be the dates to circle for short lists and winners, respectively.

We’ve added BookSense links to the Amazon ones, with people still using last year’s short lists for early holiday shopping. With those tiny commissions plus a few droplets of ad revenue, we hope to make enough to buy actual awards for this year’s winning authors and illustrators. Right now, our humble thanks are all we have to offer.

Back by popular demand are book reviews of the nominees from our bloggers, with links back to their sites – some of the most impassioned and active voices in the kidlitosphere. And, of course, we’re featuring some of the best books of 2007. We hope yours are among them.

See you at Cybils!

Posted by: Anne Boles Levy

This "Shelf Space" column is, as you see above, devoted to booksellers and librarians discussing "what's in their reading room and what's on the horizon." Both Eisha and I have brainstormed topics for this column which focus on said horizon and current trends in children's literature, but this week I find myself my usual hopeless Book-Nerd-self who can't help but talk books, books, books -- as Eisha did last week. So, on that note, here are four middle-grade/early Young Adult novels I've read recently, which -- for one reason or another -- are worthy of mention in my . . . . well, book!

I Am Not Joey Pigza by Jack Gantos; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; July 2007

I probably have the most to say about this one, my favorite middle-grade title of the year thus far.

Carter Pigza, Joey's "no-good squinty-eyed bad dad," is back. He's had a small stroke of luck with playing the lottery, and he's back to take up his post as father and all-around family man, going so far as to insist that each member of the family changes his or her name. Carter -- rather, Charles Heinz -- also moves the entire Pigza clan past the city and into the tiny apartment adjoined to a neglected, old roadside diner, which he plans to renovate into the brand-spankin'-new diner called The Beehive -- this after Charles and Maria's "rewedding." But this is the Pigza clan we're talking about here, so nothing goes as planned, of course.

There are hysterical moments balanced with heartrending moments in this particular chapter, so to speak, of the Joey saga; the chapter entitled "Granny's Comet" is a moment of Gantos-genius, as Joey visits his grandmother's grave, having collected cigarette butts for her tombstone and planning to spray paint it silver ("'I have to go now,' I said to her. I leaned forward and gave the stone a kiss. It was as cold as the last time I kissed her cheek. 'I miss you,' I said quietly. 'I'm sorry all that smoking did you in. But I guess we have that in common, too, because now I have to send Joey up in smoke and become that other kid.'"). Joey must come to his own understanding of -- and even a forgiveness for -- the wrongs done to him, even realizing at one point that Carter “always seemed to be two people at once and I wasn't sure why. But maybe it was like Mom had said, with forgiveness you can breathe easy inside your own skin. Without it, you are always trying to be someone else." And all along the way, we get those signature Gantos Joey-metaphors ("I felt tired just trying to imagine where that goodness might be in my dad. And I felt that trying to find it was going to be like crawling down one of those old dark coal mines around here that were gated shut because they were dangerous") that bring Joey to vivid life.

I heard the always-entertaining Gantos speak about Joey this past weekend at the Southern Festival of Books, sponsored by Humanities Tennessee, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Hearing him talk about the very first draft of his first Joey book be an issue book with the "disease du jour" -- in other words, a Book About ADHD and not a good story that happens to have a character with ADHD -- and how he figured he was "contributing to the worst part of children's literature" was a kick, indeed). "I thought I had unduly burdened Joey," he said about this unexpected fourth Joey title, having decided earlier he would stop at a trilogy. "I brought him out of retirement and had to put him back in jeopardy, but I guided him through that to get to the forgiveness theme." Could there be a more sympathetic, lovable character in middle-grade fiction today, I dare say? As the School Library Journal review of this title points out, Joey is really on his own now; that is now clearer than ever. And, though that does make it one of the darker Joey books, as they also pointed out, it still makes me root for him even more.

Someone give Gantos a Newbery already. I’m just sayin’ . . .

Camel Rider by Prue Mason; Charlesbridge; June 2007

A very short war, measured in merely days, breaks out in Abudai, a fictional town in the oil-rich Arabian Gulf. Adam is Australian and lives comfortably with his family and beloved dog in a compound there. Walid -- a young camel rider, who was sold into slavery and whose mother had once called him Emir Saheer, or little prince, but now is heartlessly called only "boy" -- is bound and dumped in the desert by his two abusive owners, or dalals. After the war begins, Adam escapes the compound with his neighbors, who are heading toward the border, but flees from them in order to retrieve his dog. Adam never makes it back to the compound but does stumble upon Walid, alone and left to die in the desert. The novel recounts their journey to safety, battling extreme heat, hunger, fatigue, language difficulties, prejudice toward one another's cultures, and the two cruel slave traders who once owned Walil. The chapters are initially told from the boys' alternating points-of-view, even distinguished typographically, and eventually we are privy to their alternating voices within single chapters. It took some time for me to swallow the notion that Adam would escape those trying to guide him to safety in the midst of bombs falling, no matter how reckless he normally is and no matter how much he loved his pet dog, and, to be sure, the novel sags in spots with its less-than-fully-realized characters. But young fans of action-adventure novels will likely enjoy the almost constant cliff-hanging, edge-of-your-seat moments, and to boot, readers will learn something about Muslims and the war-torn area in which they live during the process. The ending is not only tidy, but it's almost as if I heard a sitcom laugh track and could see one of those sitcom freeze-frames in my head at the novel's final paragraph. But it's still a promising debut from Mason, paced well and possessing well-placed, refreshing moments of comic relief in an otherwise mostly suspenseful and nail-biting tale.

Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst; Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers; June 2007

I've been slightly burnt out on novel adaptations of fairy tales and fairy tale retellings of late, but this one -- which goes way beyond and much deeper than merely the rewriting of a Grimm tale or two -- I found wildly original. Welcome to the dangerous world of fairy tales, "The Wild," which is normally contained under the bed of twelve-year-old Julie Marchen but which breaks free, much to the dismay of Julie's mom, Rapunzel. Yeah, that Rapunzel, who had previously (make that approximately 500 years ago) escaped The Wild and was doing her best to save the world from it. Now that The Wild is loose and taking over contemporary Northboro, Massachusetts, the fairy tale characters who were happy in their modern suburban worlds are stuck once again in the repeated retellings of their dreaded tales -- and The Wild is dragging in others as well. And beware: The very persistent Wild wants its characters back, and once you complete the dramatic retelling of a tale, you're stuck in it for all eternity. It's up to Julie to save . . . well, everyone. This is Durst's debut novel, a fantasy adventure both smart and, at times, irreverently funny. Best of all, Durst knows her fairy tales, even the minor ones, and she manages to embrace the darker elements of these tales while at the same time not scaring the pants off the junior high readers at which the novel is aimed. My one minor gripe would be that I sometimes had difficulty following the rules for and logic of The Wild's inner world. But Julie is such a well-developed character; Durst did such a fine job of making me care about her journey from moment one; and the "existential story," as Kirkus Reviews put it, that this novel is (discussions of free will, anyone?) was so well laid-out that I eagerly anticipate the return of this brave new heroine of children's lit in another once-upon-a-time in next year’s Out of the Wild.

Louisiana’s Song by Kerry Madden; Viking Juvenile; May 2007

I think the rest of the world of children’s-lit-blogging has covered this gem of a book already. I suppose I was a bit late in getting to it, but I'm glad I found it. And, to be honest, I haven't read the first book, Gentle's Holler, in this planned trilogy of Madden's, but no matter. I was never once lost, not having read the opening tale.

It's Appalachia in the historically monumental year of 1963. Livy Two and her nine brothers and sisters -- who live in Maggie Valley, a small mountain holler in North Carolina, with Mama and Grandma Horace -- have welcomed their Daddy home after he wakes from a coma as the result of an unfortunate car accident. And he is not who he used to be: He can't remember his children's names; he's generally befuddled and bothered; and he can't even bear to pick up his beloved banjo. Since he's unable to support the family, the children must help keep the family financially secure and help avoid a move to Grandma's house in town, away from their beautiful, wild mountain home. Livy's brother, Emmett, is working away from home at Ghost Town in the Sky; her mother knits sweaters; and Livy herself takes a job at the bookmobile, all the time penning country music lyrics she hopes to one day sell and perform in Nashville ("I sing like I'll never quit, because it's only when I'm singing that I can quit hurting for Daddy and start loving him again the way I used to"). It's her younger sister, the terribly shy, gentle Louisiana, who steps up to the plate, the child who can best take care of Daddy and whose talent for painting eventually aids the family as well. And it's up to Livy and Louisiana to save their father after a terrifying turn of events while they hike up Waterrock Knock -- a six-thousand-foot-tall mountain. This is a beautifully, tenderly crafted novel with moments of humor, warmth, and genuine poignancy. Not a single word of this novel rings untrue; Madden nails the Appalachian setting and way of talk, and you immediately feel comfortable in the midst of it all, as if you have known the Weems family all your life. You can bet I'll be backtracking to read Gentle's Holler, and lucky for me I have an advanced copy of Jessie's Mountain, the final novel in the Weems family saga: I'm not quite ready to leave the unforgettable Weems family behind.

Posted by: Julie Danielson and Eisha Prather

by Eisha Prather

Mental illness has been one of the favorite topics of YA novelists ever since the genre was created. Well, actually, since some date the emergence of young adult literature with the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951, one could argue that it was the topic that inspired the genre. But I still found it interesting to see how many novels published over the past year or so have depicted depressed teens. I also continue to be surprised at myself for seeking out and reading so many variations on the theme. What can I say? I find mental illness to be a compelling topic in its own right, and it seems like the more studies and research reveal about it, even more is revealed about how much the doctors don't know yet. And in fiction, it can be used to great effect as a metaphor for the greater teen condition.

Here are my impressions of a few recent titles that feature clinically depressed characters.

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (Hyperion, 2006).

Craig thought that once he passed the entrance exam to get into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, his future success would be ensured. But actually attending such a rigorous school is much harder than he expected. He falls behind in his homework, obsesses over his best friend's girlfriend, and tries to self-medicate himself out of his funk with pot and alcohol. He also tries therapy and antidepressants. But he still can't eat, can't sleep, and can't escape the feedback-loop of anxiety and self-criticism that's in constant play in his mind. When he hits rock bottom, he checks himself into the hospital.

Based on Vizzini's own experiences in a mental hospital in 2004, the strength of this novel is in Craig's voice. He's an utterly believable and likable guy with a sharp, snarky sense of humor, and the reader can't help but root for him as he works his way toward a future he can live with. Providing additional doses of drama and comic relief are a well-drawn supporting cast of fellow inmates - including a love interest, whose complicated hot-and-cold attentions help shift Craig out of his navel-gazing anxiety over the future to the possibility of happiness and friendship in the present. I also loved that his real breakthrough occurred through the discovery of an artistic talent and means of self-expression, rather than a relationship.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007).

After an incident during an academic field trip to D.C., James has had to admit that he is "disturbed." He's seeing a therapist, but during the summer before he's supposed to start at Brown he declares that he doesn't actually like being with people his age; all he wants to do is flee NYC, take his tuition savings and buy a house in the Midwest. Through most of the story he struggles with his disdain for almost everyone else on the planet, his obsession with "correct" behavior and use of language, and embarrassment over a botched romantic overture toward an older man, until a possible underlying cause for his profound unhappiness is finally revealed.

Even without the traumatic event that may have affected him, it's hard to blame him for being so misanthropic - there's scarcely an appealing character to be found in this novel. His immediate family members are all self-absorbed, caustic, and clueless; his therapist is cold and distant. Even his grandmother - the one character who truly connects with James - is a little off-putting to the reader, since to a lesser degree she shares his rigidity and "tyrannical" tendencies.

Other novels in this list tend to balance the heavier thematic elements with a dose of humor. Not this one. The tone is muted, the pace is slow; and while there's a fair bit of sarcastic banter, it doesn't do anything to alleviate the tension between James and the rest of the world. Some reviews have compared this work to The Catcher in the Rye, but I think it reads more like The Bell Jar in its relentless negativity. This isn't the most accessible novel for teens, but a select few will find a rare kindred spirit in James, and be grateful for the quietly hopeful ending.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007).

Naomi wakes after a tumble down her high school's steps to find that she's lost all memory of the past four years. As she recovers from her injury and tries to piece her life back together, she becomes frustrated by trying to be the girl her jock boyfriend or her quirky best friend remember. Instead she's drawn to the "exquisitely depressed" James (is there something about this name?), who is just as anxious to avoid the mistakes and losses of his past as she is anxious to escape everyone's expectations of her. Their determination to live in the present sustains their bond for a while, until James starts to slip into a frightening state of depression and anxiety.

The mental illness aspect of Memoirs is a subplot, rather than the focus of the novel, but the depiction of James is compelling. Zevin does an admirable job in showing Naomi's reaction to James: at first his tragic past and occasional melancholia add to his apparent depth and mystery; but when his illness returns in full-force, it's anything but sexy. Strong characters and realistic dialogue make this an engaging read.

Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern (Feiwel & Friends, 2007).

Halpern's first YA novel resembles the plot structure of It's Kind of a Funny Story, and like Vizzini's story, is based on her own psych ward experience.

When Anna finds that she can't cope with school due to her frequent panic attacks and suicidal thoughts, her parents have her committed to a Chicago hospital. During her stay on the adolescent ward, Anna is finally able to get some perspective on her self-image and body issues, and - oh yes - falls in love with a fellow patient.

Told as a series of journal-like letters to her best friend on the outside, this novel is a more light-hearted treatment of the subject than the other books mentioned here. Halpern doesn't depict very much of Anna's life before being committed, nor does she delve very deeply into the problems of the other patients. The psych ward staff is portrayed as lazy, insensitive, and oblivious to anything but the enforcement of arbitrary rules; other than giving Anna a space away from the pressures of school to allow the medication to kick in, and introducing her to boys who find her attractive, the hospital stay doesn't appear to do anything to directly influence her recovery. (If this part is also inspired by Halpern's experience, it's a pretty disturbing picture.) The strengths of this novel are in the occasional poignant moments between Anna and her new friends, and the realistically juvenile tone of Anna's voice. Given the relatively light tone and low level of YA lit “edginess” (i.e., sex, drugs and profanity), it’s a better fit for younger teens than a lot of depression-themed titles.

Posted by: Eisha Prather