The amazing Courtney Summers just wrote a great post "on unlikeable female protagonists", and I had to share a bit of it here (though you really must go read the whole thing).
We have loved spending the month of June with John Green, discussing his fantastic novel Paper Towns! Things we've learned:
René Kirkpatrick has been a bookseller and book buyer, specializing in children's and teen literature, for many years. She has a degree in elementary education and reads widely across all genres. She is currently a buyer at Third Place Books.We're honored to have her here as part of the rgz SALON, a feature where four of the top kidlit experts clue us in to the best YA novels they've read recently. Here's René, reviewing The Sky is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson. Ages 14 and up. (Dial Books. Hardcover, 2010).
"When Lennie’s older sister, Bailey, dies suddenly, Lennie is completely at sea. One morning her sister goes to school but doesn’t come home and there’s no chance to say goodbye. As Lennie tries to deal with this, she meets a new boy and really likes him and also begins a relationship with her sister’s boyfriend. What is she doing? How can she do this to her sister? People are complicated and The Sky is Everywhere highlights how quickly things change and knot up. It is very good, very romantic, very sad, realistic. I know how easy it is to make that one choice that twists the future just enough that you can’t see where you are going or where the path is headed.
"It is also funny and I love the characters in the book. Lennie works through her grief by writing down memories of her sister, questions she wanted to ask, poetry about being her sister, and leaving them in unexpected places. What a lovely idea. My favorite thing about the family, though? They road read. Read and walk through their neighborhood.
"PS-I think this would be especially good for a summer book."
Thanks, René! Has anyone else read this one yet?
Deborah Davis' Not Like You is the story of Kayla, a teenage girl who must decide whether taking care of herself means no longer taking care of her alcoholic mother. Sounds like a tough one for which to design a cover, no?
"The first time I saw the hardback cover (above, left), my heart sank right through the floor. The image -- a road in a dry landscape with a prominent road sign displaying a beer bottle --seemed cold to me, not at all like the raw, emotional tone of the book.On the other hand, when I saw the paperback cover (below), I thought, 'That's it! That captures Kayla's yearning and loneliness perfectly'..."
It feels a little funny to be telling my own Story Secrets today, after over twenty YA authors have been spilling theirs since the beginning of 2010. In fact, I'm pretty amazed that the secret is out, after being in my heart for six years!
So I thought I would tell you a bit of the story behind TELL ME A SECRET.
It's been five years since Miranda's sister died in a mysterious and tragic accident. For five years, Miranda has been holding her family together between her suffocating mother and her absentee father - but she longs to escape as Xanda would have. Now, just as Miranda has everything she's hoped for - a ticket to art school, a new friend to unlock her sister's secrets, and a dreamy boyfriend to fly her away - Miranda has a secret, too...one that will destroy everything, and send her on a path to discover her own future.
The idea for TELL ME A SECRET landed in my lap after a painful personal event. Before that, I had been writing stories that didn't delve into what was meaningful to me. Our experience changed everything, and I almost quit - until a friend, Justina Chen (author of NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL), opened a door and asked if I was thinking of writing about it. We were at a conference, and right after that, we went to hear Libba Bray talk about "Shutting off your brain and getting to the heart of your writing." And that's when the story landed.
I just found the notes I madly scribbled in those precious seconds before the idea took flight again, so I thought I would share a few...
Read on for a chance to win TELL ME A SECRET!
~Holly
Little Willow remembered a discussion that went on a little while ago that centered around an article in Onion A.V. Club about the "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" (MPDG), girls like Natalie Portman in Garden State (shown) who--according to writer Nathan Rabin--"exist solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." Jezebel weighed in too, and so did our featured author John Green, in regards to Margo of Paper Towns:
"Margo is certainly presented by Q as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl at the beginning of PT. Absolutely. But that only acknowledges that some boys believe in Manic Pixie Dream Girls; it doesn't argue that MPDGs actually exist, or that Margo is one." --JG
When Janet Lee Carey, Justina Chen, and Dia Calhoun and I first sat in a coffee shop in Seattle and discussed the idea of rgz in 2006, we had a vision. Part of that vision was helping librarians across the country begin pods, or clubs, of readergirlz. We would provide everything we could to make those meetings fun.
I had a blast hearing about the interplay between text and art, and fell in love with the new series, Frankly, Frannie, about a little girl who wants nothing more than to have a real, grown-up job. Anyone hiring? Franny is written by A.J. Stern, pictured here with her extended publishing family.
Rgz SALON member Lyn Miller-Lachmann is the Editor-in-Chief of MultiCultural Review; the author of the award-winning multicultural bibliography Our Family, Our Friends, Our World; the editor of Once Upon a Cuento, a collection of short stories by Latino authors; and most recently, the author of Gringolandia, a young adult novel about a refugee family living with the aftermath of the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. (Read thefascinating Cover Story for Gringolandia.)
"Gonzalez’s debut novel is the first of two this year to depict the experiences of the children of Operation Pedro Pan; 90 Miles to Havana by Enrique Flores-Galbis, himself a Pedro Pan, will be published in the fall. The Red Umbrella is based on the experiences of Gonzalez’s mother, who came without her parents from Cuba to the United States in 1961. Gonzalez’s mother should be very proud of her daughter for writing this book.
Congratulations, Holly! We are so happy for you!
