Just When You Think You’ve Caught Up… November 30, 2007

Just when you think you’ve caught up with anime and manga, there’s news that the industry is dying a not so slow painful death.  We’ve read it in the papers that the manga industry in Japan is on a steady decline, now read this article from one of the US anime industry’s insiders about how anime may go the way of the dinosaur. 

So just when you think you’ve caught up with what’s cutting edge and somewhat new and cool with the YA/teen crowd, start looking again, because it’s a matter of time before this little niche market disappears.

What’s next?  Your guess is as good as mine. 

Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby November 30, 2007

If not for dressage, “the art of training a horse in classical obedience and precision of movement,” Alex Ford and Cleo O’Shea would probably have never met. Alex had been a horse-mad boy; Cleo’s mother thought she was horse-mad, when Cleo was really only crazy about plastic toy horses. Cleo was too afraid to jump horses, so ended up in dressage; Alex had dreamed about dressage ever since he first saw it on television as a kid (and seriously, how can you not love the kid after the prologue?) but had no opportunity to try it. Cleo’s parents sent her, and her brand new horse, to a boarding school for equestriennes after she showed some really poor judgment, not because she was actually a serious horsewoman; Alex is a serious horseman who can only wish his family could afford a dressage horse. Not that anyone knows dressage is what he really yearns for, because Alex hasn’t told anyone. He knows his father wouldn’t approve.

The first thing I noticed about Another Kind of Cowboy was Susan Juby’s voice. I haven’t read her previous books (well, I’ve read part of Alice, I Think, but I didn’t finish it), so I can’t compare Another Kind of Cowboy to them. But there was something about the voice and tone of this book, wry and witty, that reminded me of Lily Archer’s The Poison Apples and had me instantly hooked. (In other words, Gayle, I think you’d like it.) I know, The Poison Apples uses three different first-person POVs, and in Another Kind of Cowboy, Juby writes Alex’s chapters in third-person and Cleo’s in first, but I still think the comparison works.

What doesn’t completely work in Another Kind of Cowboy is Cleo. Her character was just not as well-developed as Alex’s, which may be a result of the different POVs. But then, Alex is characterized so brilliantly from the very first page, in passages like this one (not from the first page, but pages 20-21), that he more than makes up for it.

Alex was so busy admiring them he was surprised when the girl turned her head slightly and stared right at him. At first he wasn’t sure how to react, and he gave her what he hoped was a friendly smile. He’d fallen out of the habit of smiling in the last few years. The girl looked away and he was flooded with embarrassment, standing there in his cowboy boots and big buckle, an unfamiliar smile sitting on his face like a fake moustache. The girl looked like she belonged in the pages of Town and Country and here was was, gawking at her.

Alex might be dressed like a cowboy but he didn’t feel totally comfortable in the role. Real cowboys dreamed of girls with big hair and tight jeans, bars with sawdust floors and cows and the open range. His dreams ran more to other cowboys as well as firemen, cops, and, for some reason he’d yet to figure out, paramedics. The less open range and the fewer cows, the better.

You don’t need to like horses, or even know anything about them, to enjoy Another Kind of Cowboy. It’s more than just a horse book, because while there is a lot of horse stuff—I have no idea what any of that “L to S, half pass left,” etc. at the end of chapter two means, but it was still, somehow, really funny—it’s the relationships between people that matters more. Alex and Cleo both wind up taking dressage lessons from Fergus and Ivan at Limestone Farm, and in the grand tradition of YA literature, end up learning more about themselves, each other, and other people than they do about dressage. And Alex may be gay, and he may not have told anyone at the start of the story, but it’s not a secret for long and not as big a deal as dressage. Another Kind of Cowboy is more than just a horse book or coming-of-age story or coming out story. It’s a great story, period.

Also reviewed by:
faerie_writer
MadJennyFlint
Reading Rants!
Shelf Elf

Serving Teens Through Readers’ Advisory by Heather Booth November 28, 2007

Even if your library doesn’t have a formal readers’ advisory program, Serving Teens Through Readers’ Advisory by Heather Booth is still well worth reading. Because you want to encourage teens to read, right? And because I can’t be the only one who’s never quite sure what to recommend when parents come in without their teens and ask for books, or when teens come in asking for a fiction book—any fiction book, they don’t care what, they just want a book—about a particular subject for one of their classes. Because their teacher has only told them to read a book, and didn’t give them a suggested reading list or tell their friendly nearby YA librarian about the assignment ahead of time.

So, thanks Heather Booth!

If you’re unfamiliar with readers’ advisory, it’s defined in the glossary as “The process and skill of aiding patrons in finding suitable recreational reading by detecting their reading interest, finding books to match that interest, and articulating the books’ appeal.” In other words, recommending books a patron will find appealing, and knowing which books to recommend and how to recommend them.

You don’t need experience with readers’ advisory to find Serving Teens Through Readers’ Advisory useful. Beginning with an overview of the importance of teen reading and a brief summary of the traditional readers’ advisory process that’s done with adults, Booth then highlights how teen readers differ from adults and what we need to do to adjust our approach. She introduces the concepts of readers’ advisory service (appeal factors, how to conduct a readers’ advisory interview, etc.) and gives numerous examples of questions to ask to ascertain the type of book that would most appeal to a teen patron. There is also an entire section devoted to special circumstances, which includes chapters on readers’ advisory for homework assignments and how to do readers’ advisory when the teen in question is not present.

In each chapter, key concepts and questions to ask patrons are clearly presented, making the book easy to browse through if you’re pressed for time or in need of a quick refresher. But you should still read the rest of the book! Booth writes clearly and concisely, making the readers’ advisory process understandable and simple. She notes that good readers’ advisory takes effort and practice, but presents us with the tools to start doing it. A glossary and appendices of popular authors, titles, and awards are included. My one complaint is that the book is very much focused on fiction. Non-fiction is mentioned in passing several times, but I would have liked a chapter, or at least part of a chapter, about non-fiction readers’ advisory.* All in all, I highly recommend this book to librarians serving teens.

* And if anyone can recommend non-fiction titles about people who survived genocide or slavery (at least, that’s what they think they were supposed to read about, because they left the assignment in the car), I won’t have to spend half an hour scrambling to find something if this assignment comes up again.

And it started off so well November 26, 2007

The new Entertainment Weekly, I mean. After all, they did name J.K. Rowling the Entertainer of the Year. And the Shaw Report did say getting a library card is in.

But the Most Entertaining Places of the Year map? #8: “The set of Lost on Oahu, Hawaii”? Hello, did anyone look at an atlas? Or an actual map? The plane crash on this map is on the Big Island, not Oahu. Okay, so maybe it was an artistic thing*, with the Big Island providing more space for a plane and some palm trees or something. But it’s still the wrong island!!!

* And I’ll admit, my geography isn’t good enough to figure out if the rest of the illustrations are mapped correctly. Is New Jersey really behind Jon Bon Jovi? Or is that more like Delaware?

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga November 24, 2007

Holy cow. Barry Lyga’s Boy Toy absolutely blew me away. Some people may find it an uncomfortable read because of its subject matter and explicit detail, but I thought it was totally worth it.

So, the subject matter: When Josh was thirteen, he nearly assaulted a girl in a closet during a game of spin the bottle. And that’s when the truth began to emerge.

Five years later, Josh is a senior in high school, a baseball player who thinks of baseball as an individual sport. He’s gotten into numerous fights, sees a psychiatrist, gets straight A’s, is hoping to get into his Holy Trinity of colleges (Stanford, Yale, and MIT), and is perfectly aware that everyone knows he is the kid who had a sexual affair with his history teacher back when he was in seventh grade.

The events of seventh grade are told via two lengthy flashbacks that pretty much comprise half the novel, and this structure is part of the reason Boy Toy is so compelling. The flashbacks span the entire affair, beginning even before Josh meets Eve, his history teacher. And Lyga does not shy away from messy, uncomfortable truths. We see Josh’s infatuation with Eve, the excitement, the lies he starts to tell because he wants to be with her, needs to be with her. Likewise the escalation of the affair, from the first time they’re alone together to first kiss to intercourse to the aftermath.

In a way, it feels odd to say Boy Toy is most appropriate for older teens because of the explicit sexual content when Josh was twelve when the encounters took place. But then, Boy Toy is more about the effects of sexual abuse than the act itself. Josh was damaged by Eve, and it shows in his interactions with others. He doesn’t trust other people and he doesn’t trust himself. And Lyga’s prose, realistic and straightforward, makes the story that much more believable. The subject matter, sexual content, and the intensity of the story means Boy Toy is not the right book for everyone. But if this doesn’t bother you, or you’re willing to take a chance, or for anyone looking for an honest, well-written, occasionally heartwrenching story, I can’t recommend Boy Toy highly enough.

Visit Barry Lyga’s website or read more blog reviews of Boy Toy:
BCCLS Mock Awards
Becky’s Book Reviews
Hello Ma’am
Sellers Library Teens
2nd Gen Librarian
Teen Book Review

Clay’s Way by Blair Mastbaum November 23, 2007

It’s very rare for me to find a teen novel based in Hawaii that reflects a realistic perspective on racial tension and gay issues in Hawaii, without being culturally generic or watered down. Clays Way by Blair Mastbaum is an honest and gritty depiction of a portion of teen life on Oahu.   The story revolves around Sam a pale, skinny, 15 year old, punk-skateboarder who abhors, but at the same time wants to fit into a culture that worships tanned muscular surfers.  Sam is an only child and has trouble relating to his bourgeois parents, who try to ignore him as much as possible.  One day Sam meets Clay a local surfer at a skate shop and they bond after smoking pot.  After a crazy night of drugs and alcohol Sam and Clay hook up. Sam then becomes obsessed with Clay and pursues him with a first loves intensity.  However, Clay is not ready to declare he is gay and is torn between being a macho surfer, and admitting that he is in love with Sam.  After a Lord of the Flies like experience in the Kauai jungle Clay and Sam have a lover’s spat, which results in Clays almost near self-destruction. The book snowballs into a dramatic ending leaving both Clay and Sam broken, but changed forever.

At first glance, both Sam and Clay are unlikeable characters because they are  self-centered, angry, and destructive.  However, one must remember that they are two gay teen boys trying to find themselves in a nihilistic way.  (Hence, the reason why they listen to a lot of Punk rock throughout the book.)  Based on some on-line reviews I found that people either hated or loved this book.  And I agree, that this book is not for everyone and a lot of people may find the teen angst and explicit gay sex scenes extremely raunchy and tiresome.  In addition, the characters are not positive role models nor is there any apparent moral to the story.  However, upon close inspection this novel reveals a truth about human nature, in that all we really want is to be loved and accepted by others. In addition, non-native readers may have a hard time identifying with the local terminology. Hence, a glossary of terms at the end of the book might have been helpful for non-native readers.  Also, librarians may be reluctant to recommend this title to younger teens due to the graphic sex scenes, drugs, and a plethora of swear words.  However, this book might be helpful for older teens who are going through an identity crisis or who are dealing with gay issues.

*Just a side note: Mastbaum’s appears on the cover. He’s the one smoking.

The “S” Word in YA Literature November 21, 2007

The “s” word in young adult literature is not the synonym for fecal matter, rather it’s that oh so snide remark that you and I have probably heard one too many times, slut. I’m not saying that anyone has ever called me a slut, but I’ve heard the term hurtfully used enough in my life to think of it as one of those pejoratives where there needs to be a movement to reclaim it. In Laura Ruby’s Good Girls the protagonist and her friends seem to get about as close to reclaiming the word as they can when they dress as virginal brides to the prom.

I recently read Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl which also deals with this particular issue. What strikes me both in Good Girls and Story of a Girl is that neither girl is the dictionary definition of slut, rather they are mislabeled and maligned as such because of a specific event that changes their lives.

Webster.com defines slut as:

Main Entry:

slut

Pronunciation:

\ˈslət\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

Middle English slutte

Date:

15th century

1chiefly British : a slovenly woman

2 a: a promiscuous woman; especially : prostitute b: a saucy girl : minx

Audrey in Good Girls is photographed in an intimate situation and this photo circulates throughout school ruining her “good girl” reputation. Deanna in Story of a Girl is caught by her father making out with a guy in the backseat of a car. Neither girl is in a “committed” relationship and thus they are open to attack from their peers.

 

So here’s my little rant. Is sexual liberation limited to those who are 18 and older? Are we promoting literature that maintains the status quo where young women can have sex in stories but only if they’re in committed monogamous relationships? Good Girls and Story of a Girl do a great job of questioning the term slut and applaud both Laura Ruby and Sara Zarr for their brave stances. I can imagine that they’re getting a fair share of flack for their scrutiny of societal conceptions. Anyway, I’d like to write more, but my thoughts still aren’t totally fleshed out.

 

Beastly by Alex Flinn November 21, 2007

Kyle Kingsbury lives in New York City and has got it all; looks, money, popularity, and also a very pompous attitude towards life.  However,  Kyle’s perfect world slowly crumbles after Kendra, the weird goth girl, puts a curse on him after he plays a nasty trick on her.  In a matter of days Kyle is transformed into a Beast not quite like any animal, but a monster with fur, fangs, and claws.   After his transformation Kendra appears in a mysterious mirror left in Kyle’s room.  Kendra tells Kyle that she’s really a witch and that in order to break the curse he has two years to find true love.  If he fails he will be a Beast forever.  At first Kyle doesn’t believe Kendra, and with his father’s help he searches the world for a cure, with no results.  Ashamed of Kyle’s appearance his father locks him away in a brownstone in Brooklyn with a maid and a blind tutor.  Ironically, the longer Kyle stays a Beast the more human he becomes. He learns to be more empathetic towards others, and even finds beauty in a mousy girl whom he wouldn’t have looked twice at before.   However, will that be enough to help him find true love?

Flinn has a knack for writing an urban fairytale with so much wit, humor, and romance that you’ll keep on reading, even though you know what’s going to happen in the end.  I was also delighted to find a brief history of the “Beast” fairytale in the back, which will be helpful for readers who are not fairytale aficionados.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer November 18, 2007

Life As We Knew It is one of those books that you should recommend to whiny people. I’d probably say, “You think your life is tough? Well read about what goes down at the end of the world!” Actually I probably wouldn’t say anything remotely like that, but in my mind I would…

I had a similar reaction to this book as that of Leila at the bookshelves of doom. I actually found myself checking my pantry for canned and non-perishable food. Then having strange everyone’s dead and you’re all alone nightmares. *I really have to watch what I read right before I go to sleep.* I’m a slow reader so this process of nightmares and worries lasted me a week. Thing is, I couldn’t put this book down. I had to make an effort to put it down, I so wanted to read more about gloom and doom.

So here’s the basic storyline, the moon gets hit by a exceptionally dense asteroid and is shoved toward the earth, resulting in it’s gravitational pull messing with our environment. There are massive tides, volcanoes spring up where they once were dormant or non-existent, the atmosphere is covered in a dense covering of ash from the volcanoes, and it stops raining. The temperature plummets when the season begins to change and life just plain sucks because no one has food, electricity, gas, or running water. Life As We Knew It is a survival story featuring the plight of Miranda, her mother, younger brother Jonny, and older brother Matt. Will they survive without supermarkets, electricity, or heat? Is there anyone out there to save them, or will they have to fend for themselves? To see what Miranda and her family resort to doing to survive read Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer.

Hate to say it but this book reminded me of How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. That’s not necessarily a bad thing since they have somewhat of a similar dystopic feel to them and besides How I Live Now won the Printz Award. But I’m having a heck of a time with the titles. Sadly enough I’m already mixing them up and I can’t even claim senility or senior moments. Anyway if anyone asks for readalikes, don’t forget either.

Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles (*with slight spoilers*) November 17, 2007

*Just in case. But really, the spoilers are no worse than what’s in the Booklist review you can read at Amazon.com*

Leaving Paradise is one of those books that makes me glad we don’t give grades here, just opinions. Because I’m not sure how I’d grade it. It’s flawed but readable, engaging but exasperating, and left me with very mixed emotions.

Caleb Becker has spent the last year in a juvenile detention facility after he “was convicted of hitting a girl with my car while driving drunk.” Maggie Armstrong has spent the last year trying to recover from the injuries she incurred when Caleb hit her. Both end up working for the same person, Mrs. Reynolds, Maggie doing odd jobs in the hopes of earning enough money to spend a semester abroad, Caleb as part of his community service. Although she would prefer ignoring him, Maggie is still drawn to Caleb, finding him the only one who can understand her isolation.

Elkeles alternates points of view, with Caleb and Maggie taking turns narrating chapters, but Caleb’s voice never rang true. Maggie’s did, but when half the book is told by a character whose chapters kept pulling me out of the story, asking myself what kind of teenage boy talks—to other people, not just internally—like that, well… I’m not exactly sure how Elkeles kept me reading. There were also too many coincidences for my liking. Caleb and Maggie happen to live next door to each other, and his twin sister just happens to have been Maggie’s (pre-accident) best friend. Maggie’s mother works as a waitress in a diner. Mrs. Reynolds is the mother of the diner’s owner, and just happens to have an unfinished gazebo in her yard, and lucky for her, Caleb spent a couple of summers doing construction, and building her gazebo happens to qualify as community service.

Despite all this, Elkeles convincingly conveys Maggie’s turmoil and Caleb’s frustration with peoples’ perception of him. I was emotionally invested in the story and characters, which is why my biggest problem with Leaving Paradise is the ending. If Elkeles hadn’t made me care about Caleb and Maggie, I wouldn’t have cared about what happened to them. But I did, and that’s why I absolutely hated the ending.