Dislikeable likeable protagonists May 9, 2008

You’ve heard us talk about dislikeable protagonists in the past. But have you ever heard of a dislikeable likeable protagonist? If this type of main character intrigues you give the author Elizabeth Scott’s books a try. I recently read Bloom and Stealing Heaven which have many similarities.

Both protagonists in Bloom and Stealing Heaven feel like their lives are not theirs to control. Danielle in Stealing Heaven only knows a life of stealing with her mother. When she meets people she tells them lies about herself because she is a thief and does not want to reveal her true identity. She creates an identity for the purposes of getting information that she needs to help her mother burglarize a prominent household in the town which they are staying. Lauren in Bloom is living a life trying NOT to be her mother. She tries to be the ideal daughter for her father, the ideal friend for her best friend and the ideal girlfriend for her boyfriend. All these ideals are not really who she is and she starts to do what she really wants covertly. Lauren cheats on both her best friend and boyfriend-she has another best friend and love interest on the side. She thinks she can conceal this but the reality is she is more transparent than she thinks. Eventually the concealment and lies that these characters build up comes crumbling down in a relieving denouement. To step into the shoes of a dislikeable likeable protagonist read Bloom and Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott.

For the most part I thought Bloom and Stealing Heaven were well written and compelling however, one of the problems that I had with these books was the lack of character development. Danielle seems to have dropped out of the sky and even when there are allusions to her past, they are unbelievable and topical. Moreover her past does not flesh out her character. Instead of creating a believable multi-faceted protagonist we get a semblance of a character who is written for the purpose of moving a story forward. Don’t get me wrong, I like that the characters are flawed, but in that same regard I would like to understand why they are flawed. Is their flaw only because they are unable to think and act on their own, or does it run deeper?

Anyway for more takes on these books and some insight from Elizabeth Scott check out her blog http://www.elizabethwrites.com/. More reviews and commentary about Bloom are available at the following blogs: bildungsroman, bookshelves of doom, and teenreads.com. There’s even an interview with Elizabeth at bildungsroman.

One last note, Stealing Heaven hits the shelves May 27, 2008.

To Recommend or Not to Recommend… May 3, 2008

I’ve been wondering about Stephenie Meyer’s The Host.  An eighth grade fan of the Twilight series asked me about this book.  I’ve been apprehensive about recommending it to teens since it is deemed an adult title. 

 

Has anyone read it yet?  What do you think?  Definitely an adult title or does it have Young Adult crossover potential?    

Yet another reason why I love Meg Cabot October 5, 2007

On “Gossip Girl”:

So instead I will discuss my profound disappoint with the show Gossip Girls. Yes, I said it, that show is disappointing me. OK, look, I never read the books because, hello, I am busy writing my own books, so I don’t really know what they’re about. But my understanding was that they were dishy and awesome, not PREACHY and MORALISTIC. Why else were all those moms so worried about them rotting the brains of their impressionable young daughters?

And in other YA lit-related news:

Megan Whalen Turner’s working on a new book!

I am working on the next book in the sequence. It is going very slowly and I am behind. Unless my editor is reading this, in which case, I am writing, Virginia! Writing!

And if that isn’t exciting enough, Garth Nix is writing two more Abhorsen books. We do have to wait until 2010 and 2011, but, hey, two more Abhorsen books!

Catherine Hardwicke (”The Nativity Story,” “Lords of Dogtown,” and “Thirteen”—yes, that “Thirteen”) is set to direct the film adaptation of Twilight. (via Entertainment Weekly’s News Roundup)

Tokyopop is running an Alex Unlimited original short fiction contest. (via Jen Robinson)

Must read YA books? September 8, 2007

I was gonna include this with my previous post, but it started getting way too long, so here it is on its own.

The Longstockings’ Question of the Day from Tuesday: “My question is what ‘MUST READ’ books would you include in a primer dedicated to YA or on a syllabus for a YA course?” And Becky’s thoughts. 

I agree with:

• Monster by Walter Dean Myers
• American Born Chinese by Gene Yang
• Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
• What My Mother Doesn’t Know by Sonya Sones

and I know I’m forgetting stuff since I can’t take a look at my collection, but I would add:

• Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block
• something by Meg Cabot
• something by Sarah Dessen
• Hero by Perry Moore (or Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan)
• Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
• Gossip Girl by Cecily von Ziegesar because even though it’s not great literature, it’s popular, on the ALA’s list of frequently challenged books, spawned imitators, and is the basis of a new TV show
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky? (which, okay, I haven’t read, but I need some guy books here!)
• and you need to have some manga, but I’m not sure what I’d pick. Naruto, maybe, just because it’s so popular?

What about you?

Your book humor for the day August 30, 2007

It’s only tangentially related to teens and YA lit, but my branch manager and I were cracking up at some of these butchered book titles shared on the Fiction_L listserv.

Some of my favorites:

• Harry Potter and the Chamberpot of Secrets
• Fire Hydrant 415
• Flowers for Allergies
• Satan in the White House

Can you guess which book the patron who asked for “Satan in the White House” was actually looking for? If I had gotten this question at the reference desk, I probably would have gone to Amazon.com thinking it was a real book.

And it’s not a butchered book title, but I feel sorry for the librarian who said, “I spent several hours looking for information for a mother doing her son’s ‘biology’ home work on Fetal Scent Syndrome. Turns out it was his GEOGRAPHY home work and he was supposed to research the Fertile Crescent.”

It also reminded me of this classic misspelling. (via librarian.net)

Fortunately, or unfortunately, for me the only book title incident I can personally remember is the kid who asked me for “Desperado” when he really meant The Tale of Despereaux. Well, a lot of teens do get the titles of Dave Pelzer’s books mixed up, but those incorrect titles aren’t exactly funny.

It’s barely August August 4, 2007

and Amazon.com has unveiled their Best Books of the Year So Far lists. As usual, they combine children and teen books on one list. The YA titles are

• Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
• The Alchemyst by Michael Scott

I always get into semantic arguments with myself about “best” vs. “favorite.” This may make me sound rather crazy, arguing with my self, but it’s true. I have no problem picking my favorite books (or whatever) of the year, even if I’m the really picky type that says I have to like it, plus it has to have that extra something that lifts it above everything else I’ve read and liked, and if nothing meets this requirement, then I won’t have any favorites. But best? No can do. And there is a difference.

So, what are your picks for best and/or favorite YA books published so far this year?

My “so far” list is awfully short (as in one book!), since almost everything on my Favorites of 2007 list hasn’t been published yet except for The Plain Janes by Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg.

Ha! July 26, 2007

I wasn’t planning on watching the Today show’s interview with J.K. Rowling (did I need to, with newspapers and magazines and other blogs writing about it?), but then I read this (edited to add: sorry, should’ve mentioned there are major spoilers!).

If anyone’s interested, I kind of discuss my thoughts about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows here.

Guyaholic Chat: Relationships and Sexuality June 10, 2007

Here’s more to enjoy from our chat about Guyaholic:

Jolene: What else did you enjoy about Guyaholic? What did you think about Sam’s character?
Gayle: Pretty static, nothing much to him except he’s a cool guy.
Trisha: Liked him, and his name.
Gayle: What did he see in V?
Jolene: It seemed like Mackler almost forgets him, and the last two pages are an afterthought to the character.
Jolene: She’s hot?
Trisha: Well, I don’t think the secondary characters are as important in the book as V, because it’s her journey.
Jolene: True. Maybe I would’ve liked to see more character development on that side.
Gayle: Sam seems to be more of a plot element.
Trisha: Totally.
Jolene: Yeah I agree. Good point.
Gayle: Sam’s there because we need a good guy.
Gayle: Same reason why we need Nate.
Jolene: Because V’s so bad?
Trisha: Someone unlike her, whom she never thought she’d fall in love with. (Re: Sam)
Jolene: Good boy meets crazy girl.
Gayle: Same as we need hockey jock.
Jolene: I liked the way they meet, totally original.
Trisha: So she can get hit on the head by a puck!
Gayle: You need the good guy to show you, you have self worth?
Gayle: V doesn’t seem capable of being alone.
Trisha: To stick with you long enough to get to the point where you want to change?
Gayle: There needs to be male attention.
Jolene: Yeah I guess Sam highlights her dependence on people.
Gayle: Her sexuality is her power.
Jolene: Her need for some sort of emotional bond, since her mom is not there emotionally.
Trisha: Except she’s in denial about that.
Gayle: Part of who V is her sexual identity.
Trisha: I liked that V was the sexually experienced one.
Trisha: And that she wasn’t ashamed of her sexual desires or experience.
Jolene: I think that’s what made her character so complicated. She was sexually experienced, but not emotionally mature.
Gayle: She’s known from early on, that guys will do what she wants because she’s sexy.
Gayle: What to do with the sexual power?
Jolene: Rule the world like Pamela Anderson.
Trisha: She uses sex to keep from forming emotional attachments, like a guy, in some ways.
Gayle: Experimentation to see what fits her.
Gayle: So she freaks out when Sam fits.
Jolene: Yes good point! That’s why I like Sam so much he’s like the girl in the relationship.
Trisha: The one who wants a relationship.
Jolene: I could totally see V as a character on the Real World.
Gayle: There are both men and women who want commitment.
Gayle: Just depends on the personality type.
Jolene: I guess it’s the stereotype that we most see often in romance books.
Trisha: But what was interesting about her is that her voice, even with all her additional experience, is so similar to Mara, and Virginia, and I can never remember the name of the narrator of Love and Other Four-Letter Words.
Jolene: How so?
Gayle: Samantha
Gayle: Haha, another Sam.
Trisha: V is a completely different character than the other three narrators, but her voice is the same.
Trisha: I was expecting something different, but it totally works.
Jolene: Is the language? Style of storytelling?
Trisha: Gayle, help me out here!
Gayle: To make an inaccessible character accessible is the mark of a good writer right?
Gayle: Mackler somehow hits a bull’s eye with feelings of the protagonists.
Jolene: True like Stephanie Meyer’s characters.
Gayle: They all feel insecure with who they are, a common theme.
Trisha: I guess after VVV, because V was so different from Mara, I was expecting her voice to be different. More wild or outrageous or something.
Gayle: Inner growth comes from challenging themselves in some way

Jolene: Very Zen.

Gayle: Mara in stepping out of her emotional cocoon and dating the Common Grounds guy.

Gayle: Virginia when she steps out of her usual and becomes the new green haired Virginia who’s not afraid to speak what she thinks–in essence standing up to her mother and her mother’s expectations.

Trisha: Realizing everyone else in her family isn’t perfect.

Gayle: V in accepting who she is, not thinking of her self as damaged goods or whatever socio-oppressive phrase there is for a sexually aware woman.

Trisha: But “damaged goods” in the sense of being relationship-shy because of her mother, right?

Gayle: Yeah.

How Opal Mehta Got Kissed… May 29, 2007

I’m not a fan of plagiarism.  That being said, I still want to read How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life.  Funny thing is, I probably wouldn’t read this if it hadn’t gotten controversial.

Google, My Friend May 17, 2007

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the databases we subscribe to like Novelist, but sometimes it’s much easier to google something.  For example, yesterday I was trying to pinpoint a Sisterhood readalike and tried our catalog and Novelist to no avail.  My mind was abuzz with all the possibilities…there are quite a few books featuring a group of girls that my brain was a little overwhelmed trying to name them all.  I resorted to Google and found what I wanted almost instantaneously.  It think the reason why Google is effective as a search engine is that it thinks like/for the common person like me.  It doesn’t have strict search terms and even makes useful suggests.

So I’m sharing my find the Evanston Public Library’s bibliography of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Readalikes.  I also poked around and found a couple of Asian Pacific Heritage Month links on their site.  Evanston Public Library Asian American Heritage Month Web Resources Link and Evanston Public Library Asian American Heritage Month Booklist.  Their booklist contains some manga which I wouldn’t consider Asian American just because they don’t feature Asian American protagonists, but I don’t want to dog them because at least they are trying.