drama, characters, jersey shore…with gifs!

Oh, I am going to admit a dirty little secret. Ready? Freckles McYoungest and I have been watching old seasons of The Jersey Shore. *Ptui!* Man. I felt filthy just typing that. It started when we were with Bottled Lightning, and she kind of sort of FORCED US to watch an episode or two. Holy [...]

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in the path of falling objects: the sandwich book

There’s no prison worse than “I promise.” A promise can carry you through tough times. Or cause them. Jonah and Simon, two abandoned brothers, set out to rendezvous with a third brother coming back from Vietnam. The only guarantee they have of meeting up with him is in his letters. The boys hitch a ride [...]

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phoning it in

There has been talk (OH I KEEP MY EAR TO THE GROUND, MY PRETTIES) that cell phones and iPods and laptops are suspiciously absent from kidlit. Why? Well, because there are a lot of stories that would have ended with one phone call to the ol’  ‘rents. Duh. Which goes back to kids aren’t nearly [...]

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master writer #6–barbara stuber, crossing the tracks

It’s been some time since I’ve posted a Master Writer blog entry. (See previous entries.) I’m pretty picky about my list of kidlit book authors who’ve mastered some aspect of their writing in a particularly stupendous way. I think you’ll be impressed with Barbara Stuber’s Crossing the Tracks: A literary Young Adult novel in the [...]

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james frey: still a piece of work

Oh, James Frey. Who the bleep do you think you are. Some wonderful insight on Frey’s shenanigans from Nova Ren Suma and Maureen Johnson. IN A NUTSHELL: (Emphasis on NUT) James Frey is raiding MFA programs. He entices destitute grad students to write YA books for him. For slave wages. To his specifications, to maximize [...]

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5 points you better get about ya literature

I really don’t have anything against adult writers dipping their pens into the YA market. Really, I don’t. If they know what they’re doing. Because YA Lit is not dumbed-down Adult Lit. In fact, I put to you that YA Lit is smarter than Adult Lit. Because teens have very sensitive bullshit-meters, and they won’t [...]

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when adult lit writers go ya

I went to a book signing for a writer who is fairly well-known, but new to me. She’s primarily an adult author, but was in town to promote her second YA book. Well, she gave an interesting talk. A little reserved, but perhaps that’s how adult authors are. Then it came time for questions. There [...]

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speak? banned? again? are you kidding me?

A quote from Wesley Scroggins, in the Springfield, Missouri News-Leader: “In high school English classes, children are required to read and view material that should be classified as soft pornography.” One of the books he wishes to ban? Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. Here’s some “pornography” he quotes: ‘NO!—I’m not really here, I’m definitely back [...]

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crossing the tracks by barbara stuber

You’ve been to the party–today you get to hear about the book, Crossing the Tracks by Barb Stuber. It wasn’t Iris Baldwin’s idea to leave her home in Atchison. Just like it wasn’t her mother’s idea to die and leave Iris alone with her father. This particular summer, Iris’ father decides to hire her out [...]

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crossing the tracks–barb stuber’s launch party

Barbara Stuber’s book, Crossing the Tracks launched in June. So pretend I’m not two and a half months behind in my blogging and come along with me for a run-down. She had a fabu party at the Faultless Starch Company Headquarters, replete with food, her trailer playing on a big-screen TV and snippets of her [...]

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