STACKED

books

Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

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I didn’t get the internet at home until I was 13. Back then, chatting was what we know as social networking now, and most of my gaming/chatting was limited to a few writing forums on AOL and Neopets (anyone honest would admit to that sort of thing!). But today, most kids have had internet as part of their entire lives, and that’s the topic that Littman chooses to explore in her powerful and important new novel, Want to Go Private?

Abby Johnston is 14, and she’s been best friends with Faith since second grade. They do everything together. The thing is, Abby feels like she’s been growing away from Faith lately, as well as growing apart from her family and the support structures that have always been in her life. They’re beginning high school, and while Faith has taken this opportunity to explore who she is and what she looks like, Abby remains comfortable being the quiet, shy, unflashy girl. Unfortunately, though, this means that their friendship’s been a bit strained lately, and now Abby feels that the extent of her friendship with Faith now exists in their online chats through the new social networking site ChezTeen.

But unlike a lot of people who use these sites to meet new people, the two of them mostly keep to themselves and talk with one another. Abby knows she’s not supposed to talk to strangers, but all of those rules start to change when one guy — BlueSkyBoi (real name: Luke) — begins to take a shine to Abby on this website. He gets to know her through their private ChezTeen chats, and he offers her the sympathetic and understanding ear that no one else in Abby’s life seems to want to lend. Before she realizes it, she’s fallen into the belief that Luke really cares for her and that she knows him well enough to trust that meeting him in person might be a good idea.

But that’s not going to end up being a good idea.

Want to Go Private? is powerful and cautionary tale, perfect for middle and high school students. Although so much of what’s explored here feels like it’s fairly obvious, it’s not. Though today’s teens have grown up with the internet as an extension of themselves, the fact of the matter is so few have real experience with how to detach that digital world from the real, physical world. Moreover, many are unaware how dangerous taking things from the digital world to the physical world can be. Abby, who is going into high school, falls into what so many teens can easily fall into: trusting someone who says and does all the right things online and pursing an opportunity to meet him.

But this isn’t just about what happens when the online goes into the real world, this is about what happens when someone invests too much in their online world, too. Abby gets caught up in feeling very comfortable with Luke — so comfortable, she takes photos of herself without clothing and in vulnerable manners for his pleasure. She does it to please him and to feel like she belongs to someone. Like so many teens today who do things like this and who engage in sexting, Abby dives in with trust and with the belief that she is invincible. The problem is, of course, that she isn’t, and no one really is. And it’s here that Littman’s story becomes cautionary and scary.

Littman sets up her novel quite smartly. It’s told through Abby’s voice initially, and her voice is so likable and relatable, she is easy to immediately buy. I trusted her when she began talking with Luke, and like her, I thought Luke was a nice guy. My adult instincts kicked in, of course, when he began soliciting her for photos and then suggested meeting somewhere, but I could really understand why Abby wanted to do these things. She felt alone and vulnerable, and in talking with Luke, she felt understood and she felt valued, even if it wasn’t necessarily for the right reasons.

Then Littman shakes up the narrative. It’s not just Abby we hear from. We get the chance to hear the story through Faith’s voice, through the voice of Abby’s sister Lily, and through the voice of Billy, a boy from Abby’s school who has a true and genuine crush on her. This structure works well because it gives a great view into how something that seems innocent can have a huge impact on an entire network of people. I found all of the voices here well written and compelling, and they added a lot to Abby’s story. Whereas I believe the entire book could have been told from Abby’s point of view, getting the story from the other characters tightened up the story and provided an opportunity to may not feel entirely sympathetic for Abby. That’s not to say we don’t, but the trick in a story told through one perspective is that we only get that single story; getting it from a couple perspectives here works, since we can see something from a different, less biased eye.

Want to Go Private? is not an easy book to read, as it left me feeling creeped out more than once. Moreover, Abby is taken advantage of in a manner that is extremely difficult to read, and it happens more than once. The thing is, these scenes are absolutely vital to the story line; while they could have been done off page, they wouldn’t have the impact that they have on page. The beauty of this method is that those who are uncomfortable with reading the graphic scenes can skip over them and grasp the impact as much as someone who wants/needs to read them.

My one criticism of the book comes at the end of the story. Once Abby has been through hell and back, she’s been given the opportunity to become a spokesperson of sorts at her school (much in the way she becomes a bit of a spokesperson through the novel itself). In these moments, she feels almost a little too preachy, too experienced. Although her life changed in unimaginable ways and certainly she became an “adult” far before she was ready, I didn’t believe she’d talk to her peers in the manner she did. That said, I think younger readers won’t necessarily believe this is too preachy — it’s sort of the tone they’d expect to hear in a novel like this. Older teen readers, though, will likely not buy into some of the lessons. They picked them up throughout the story and don’t need them laid out so bluntly at the end.

Littman’s book would make a great addition to book discussions or classroom discussions, as there is so much to work with. When I presented this book as a potential title for my teen book group, they were extremely interested in reading it. There is a layer of appeal to this story because this story is one that is such a part of this age group’s lives.

Although there are some hard-to-read scenes, I wouldn’t have a problem selling this one to middle schoolers — I almost think the shock factors would be the lesson many sort of need to see played out to understand how important internet safety truly is. This is the kind of book anyone who wondered “what if” will appreciate. It’s a well paced book, and one that tackles a topic that’s been important for quite a while but not necessarily approached. It’s a title with quite a bit of staying power, as I think the storyline is something that will be relatable to teens for a long time to come. Bonus: Littman’s created an entire website, chezteen.com, to talk about the issues her book presents, and it’s approachable for teens, teachers, and other educators.

ARC picked up at Book Expo America.

Advocating for Contemporary YA Lit

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We’ve covered a ton of ground this week, from talking about favorite contemporary titles to offering up lists of resources for getting started and/or recommending titles for readers. In reading comments, it’s been exciting to see people say some of these titles are completely new to them. Moreover, it’s been exciting to be excited about contemporary ya. But we need to do more than get excited about it in the blogosphere; we need to act upon it.

As I talked about in my first post this week, contemporary ya lit doesn’t get the marketing or publicity bucks behind it that so many other genres do. Pay attention to the advertisements you see around for books — do many of them look familiar? Do they target the same few books over and over? What about the standing displays at book stores, the promotional events, and even the books that are reviewed multiple times throughout the blogosphere? So few, if any, are contemporary books — most of these titles end up as mid-listers, as the books that require the author and readers to do much of the leg work in promotion.

Just this week, Kirsten Hubbard shared an incredibly brave post about her publishing experience post-book deal. Tara Kelly posted something of a similar tone last year. For most readers, the book they read is the entire story. Rarely do they get this sort of insight into the process, though, and I think that through posts like this, more consumers can understand why book promotion is such an important thing.

These sorts of posts should be a wake up call for librarians, educators, and other gatekeepers to teens and teen readers. Knowing the books is important, but advocating for them is the second part of the story. As strange as it may sound, us adults have huge power in helping make these books get out there. As April Henry points out in her passionate post about her love for librarians, librarians have the power to publicize a book in ways that publishers don’t. They get the word out on the ground level, to their kids, and they can purchase the books for their collections. The same, of course, can be said for teachers (who, too, can nominate books for book awards) and they can get the word out about books to their kids, as well.

While you’re probably thinking that purchasing one copy for the library or one copy for a classroom collection is a drop in the bucket, it’s actually much more than that. You’re putting a name out there, a book out there, and you’re helping expose readers to new voices. Those readers — teens — are devoted and devour the things that matter to them. And often, they themselves will go buy the book and they’ll spread the word about those good books. The more books you know as a gatekeeper, the more you can talk about books, the more knowledge you can spread to your readers, and the more you’re supporting both those titles and those authors. You’re playing a part in the system on the ground level, and even if it feels like you’re doing little with your actual purchasing, you’re doing a lot in spreading the word to those who do play a part in the growth and development of those undermarketed midlist books (which, as we’ve established, tends to be where contemporary ya lit ends up). Of course, you can do your part by also purchasing books for your personal collection. Although I’m a huge library user and advocate, I still purchase my favorite books. And most of the books we give away here at STACKED are books I purchase to give away — I consider it my little way to give.

One of the things we do as bloggers and we would love to see more of in our own blog reading is seeing more contemporary ya spotlighted. We’d love to see more mid-list titles reviewed; it seems that there are weeks where every book reviewed in the blogosphere is the same title. Often, it’s the same title that’s already receiving large publicity pushes. The other thing that we’d like to see more of — and something that is okay despite what many people believe is not — is backlist reviews of worthy contemporary titles. There are so many books published each year that many are overlooked, but that’s the point of why we’re here talking about contemporary ya lit this week. We want to see more of these reviews of older titles. They’re often still relevant and important, and they’re just as worthy of attention as the books coming out down the road. In short, bloggers can play just as valuable a role in drawing attention for contemporary ya titles by reviewing them and by perhaps passing on reviewing the shiniest, newest, 6-figure marketing budget titles. Spotlighting the array of titles out there spreads the word and develops a richer, more valuable blog world.

Moreover, we can play a role in getting attention to these titles through reading and nominating worthy titles to the various award lists. Anyone can suggest titles for the Morris Award for debut authors, for the Best Fiction for Young Adults list, for the Quick Picks list, and other award consideration through the American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association division. You can also nominate for smaller, more niche awards like the Stonewall Awards for LGBTQ titles, an award for which I’ve nominated a title already this year. When you read something that’s even half worth having a committee read and consider, then nominate it. It’s easy and it’s one simple way to advocate for the books that need that push.

Anyone can also nominate books for consideration for the yearly Cybils award. The nominations open October 1 and run through October 15. The books nominated can be an excellent resource — plenty of titles are nominated that don’t get a lot of attention, so it’s a nice exposure for readers. Not only that, but the short list titles (and winners) are getting attention that might have bypassed them through the year. And since these books are judged both on literary merit and kid appeal, your short list titles are must reads in staying ahead.

Perhaps one of the easiest things you can do is continue staying ahead of the game. Know what books are coming out, know what authors are out there writing about the contemporary issues you know matter to your readers, and read. Read both the books and browse some of the incredible blogs that are out there aimed to inform you as a gatekeeper and aimed to reach teen readers — you have the power to point these fantastic resources out to your readers. As much as everyone says it’s an issue of time, and perhaps it is, I reiterate something I’ve said over and over: you always have time for the things you’re passionate about. If you don’t make time for your passion, your priorities are out of line. As gatekeepers, our passion should be meeting the needs of our teens, and as much as it can be daunting, keeping tabs on, reading, and fiercely advocating for contemporary ya make you an authority and a partner in the growth and development of your teens.

To wrap up Contemporary YA week at STACKED, I’m offering up a few invaluable resources you should book mark, add to your blog reader, and become familiar with. Again, if you know of other resources, plug them in the comments. It’s my hope that these things become go-to sources for both new contemporary readers and for those who advocate for these books already.

Blogs and Websites to know

  • The Contemps: 21 authors who write contemporary ya came together to develop this incredible resource for contemporary ya lit. Their blog is one you want to book mark/subscribe to and read, as they talk about not only their own books, but books of fellow contemp authors. They feature posts on issues teens face and much more. This is the kind of resource to keep you ahead of the game on books, and it’s also one you’ll want your teens to know about.
  • Class 2k11 and The Elevensies: Both of these websites are devoted to getting the word out about debut ya authors in 2011. Although they aren’t focused exclusively on contemporary titles, they do feature contemp authors. But I link these two because they’re excellent resources for gatekeepers in staying on top of new releases. The bulk of these authors are not getting huge publicity campaigns, and for a debut author, their first book is pretty huge. Kirsten Hubbard’s earlier linked post can stand as reason alone that knowing and advocating for debut titles is important. And if you’re thinking farther ahead, you can also check out Class 2k12 and The Apocalypsies sites for 2012 debuts.
  • Reading in Color: This blog is so valuable in exposing readers to books featuring people of color. A lot of these titles don’t get the attention they deserve, either, and this blog does a great job exposing those books to a wider audience.
  • Publisher’s Catalogs: This website gives you links to all the major publisher’s catalogs. Why is this important, you ask? It helps you get ahead. If you peruse the catalogs, you can see everything and get an idea of where titles are positioned in any publisher’s list that season. Pay attention to this — look where your contemporary ya is. Read those books. Advocate for those books. Buy those books for your collection, even if you don’t see a million reviews for it or a million ads for it. Reviewing the catalogs for the upcoming season (meaning, you’re reviewing fall catalogs now) helps you get the knowledge early. Familiarity is the first step; once you have your hands on the books, you begin the real advocacy in purchasing, reading, recommending, and exercising your power in nominating worthy titles for award consideration.

Guys Lit Wire Book Fair

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Can you imagine what it would be like if you didn’t have books in your high school library? If you couldn’t access things like an SAT study guide?

Thanks to the efforts of Guys Lit Wire, one high school in such a situation is being offered the chance to change that through the donations of book lovers and youth advocates.

Ballou High School is this year’s recipient of this book fair, and donating to the cause is incredibly easy and rewarding. Click here to get the full details on how to access the school’s wish list and have items sent directly to them.

I donated 2 fiction titles, and after making my donation, I got notes from two of my friends — not bloggers or book friends, but people I went to college with — that they also donated a handful of books EACH to the cause. So readers, I implore you: if you can spare 10 or 15 bucks to put much needed books into the hands of these high schoolers, you would make a difference in someone’s life. It’s easy and important.

If you DO donate, please drop me a comment here with what you sent. I think I can do something to reward you, too.

Stay by Deb Caletti

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Clara and her father’s move to a rental place in a small town on the water begins Deb Caletti’s latest novel, Stay. Although a quiet event in their lives, it ends up being a huge part of the story, as we begin weaving the story of Clara’s volatile last few months in an abusive relationship with Christian with the story of her recovery and attempt to reconcile her feelings for Christian, herself, and a guy she’s met on the water in her new town. Is she ready to move on after such a rough relationship with Christian? Can she let herself believe she’s worth more than what Christian told her?

Stay is a slower paced story but it’s an important one. As readers, we know immediately that the relationship Clara develops with Christian won’t be healthy — we can see it from the start. But what Caletti does that’s so important here is that she drops us square into Clara’s mindset. As outsiders, it’s easy for us to judge this relationship, but given the internal thoughts of Clara, it’s almost easy to see why she chose to remain in an abusive relationship and why she’s unwilling to throw herself into a new one after ending things with Christian.

A secondary plot that Caletti develops in this book is that of Clara’s mother: she’s been dead for quite a while, but we’re never given the immediate reason why. Clara’s father isn’t willing to talk much about it, but it’s through his newly emerging relationships in this new town that he finally comes to terms with his grief over the loss of his wife and is able and willing to relate the story to his daughter.

This isn’t an easy book to review, primarily because it is such an issue-driven book. It’s fairly cut and dry in terms of what the goals are in story telling, and as readers, we have our expectations adequately met. Christian is depicted at first as a good guy, but then we’re given insight into those small moments where his character is questionable. Then we see his wretched side fully. We get to see Clara develop her innocent fascination with Christian into a full relationship, one which is rich and exciting from the get go. Then we see her begin questioning his actions toward her, his possessiveness and need to keep an eye on her. We care deeply when she’s hurt and we want her to leave Christian, but we know, too, it will take quite a bit for her to build the power to do so. Both are fully realized characters, complex and emotionally charged, but neither were exactly different. That is to say, nothing memorable stood out about either for me as a reader. They were based on their actions/reactions thereafter, rather than their characteristics.

The story as a whole never coalesced like I hoped, either. Although I liked the resolution, I kept thinking in the back of my head that more should happen or that I should know something quirky or more compelling about any of the characters. Part of me questioned the audience of this novel more generally, too: as Sarah’s pointed out, Caletti’s writing feels a bit like a teen version of Jodi Picoult. I agree. In fact, part of me believes that a story like Stay has tremendous cross-over potential for adult readers and admittedly, there were moments in the story that the description dwelled just a little too long on the water front imagery and the idea of the sea, something that happens much more in adult fiction than teen. Those moments didn’t feel as authentic to Clara’s voice as I’d like them to because they felt much more adult than teen. Although she’d been through something that certainly was adult, I didn’t believe her sensibilities in those musings.

What I really liked about this novel, though, was the relationship between Clara and her father. It’s rare to read a well-written relationship between a father and a daughter, but I think Caletti nails it here. Dad doesn’t hover, but he wants to protect his daughter; Clara doesn’t repel him or go running to him for safety, but she treads carefully into the world of knowing she needs her father for some things (such as safety and security) but that she also needs to rely on herself to handle other things (such as social acceptance and moving on). I really liked her father throughout the story, but it was probably the last couple of interactions between them that solidified him as my favorite character in the story.

Worth noting, this book can come off a bit jarring upon first reading. The chapters alternate from the present back through the past, and it took me a few chapters to figure this out. It’s worth noting that I read the advanced copy of this title, and as of that version, there were not indicators on the chapters noting whether they were in the present or were flashbacks. Once in the groove of the story telling method, though, the flow makes sense and works quite nicely. I liked the story’s execution because it really gave us intimate insight into Clara’s mindset, both in the moment and in her reflection of those moments.

Stay will work for your teen fans of adult fiction authors like Jodi Picoult or Anna Quendlin (and fans of her most well-known work Black and Blue will likely find Caletti’s story an interesting work to read in comparison to boot). It’ll also work for fans of Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti, though the plotting here will be the thrust of the stories, rather than the characters. And finally, I urge you to keep this book on your radar if for no other reason than to notice one of 2011’s ya trends: relationship abuse. Stay is the first big name book on this topic out this year, but Jennifer Brown’s Bitter End (reviewed here) will be available this week and Jenny Downham’s You Against Me will be over from the UK this fall. In addition, Amanda Grace (the pen name for Mandy Hubbard) has also recently released But I Love Him on this topic, as well. It’ll be interesting to see the varied and various angles on this tough but important topic — Caletti’s title falls on the internal and recovery aspects of the victim.

On balance: How much should we obsess?

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I’ve got a topic I’m interested in starting a discussion on. It’s something I’ve been wrestling with in my mind for a while, and one which was stirred up by articles such as this one. This is sort of two-pronged, so go with me here.

When the Morris Awards list was unveiled a couple weeks ago, I saw more than one post discussing how this was one of the most balanced lists put out by an awards committee in a long time. We’re talking balanced in the sense of genre and topic, rather than by author’s gender right now. I don’t disagree with this assessment at all; in fact, I think it’s a pretty spectacularly balanced list, except for the lack of a real romance-y title. We have a historical fiction, two contemporary titles (which are themselves worlds different from one another), a paranormal, and a fantasy.

But then discussions popped up like the one I liked to above regarding gender balance and it got me thinking.

As a reader, I don’t think too much about the gender of the book’s author. For me, it’s not really that important. It’s something I think about a bit when it comes to the main character and how well done I think he or she may be — one of my sticking points in many books is authenticity of male voice — and so when one is particularly well done by a female, I take note. I want to read more of their titles to see this strong voice since I do think it’s hard to nail down. Rarely, though, do I consider the author when I’m reading their work. Their backgrounds, experiences, heritage, and gender play little into my reading experience. I don’t think it’s fair. It puts that author in a place where they’re representative of something bigger than themselves, their experiences, and their creative abilities.

When awards lists come around, it fascinates me to no end how discussions of the author’s background and experience can even come into the equation. How something not related to the text can possibly be relevant to the work as written. I think discussion of character voice and gender is entirely relevant — and something we’ve talked about in Cybils discussion — but the authors themselves? It has no place in discussion of the book itself.

This brings me back to my point earlier about the Morris’s extremely balanced list.

I think it’s also unfair to become obsessive about balance. It’s a bonus, though I think it becomes a bit of a clutch in many situations. I don’t think we always need to be balanced in the world, nor do we always need to be balanced when it comes to something like awards. I don’t think we need to have this balanced pointed out, either. I almost find it a bit pandering.

Some books are just stronger than others, and some genres produce stronger books in any given year than others. To exclude books from consideration for an award because another book is in that genre or because it’d make the list unbalanced just feels wrong to me. I don’t think there is obligation for fairness in art or literature.

I’m not writing this to bash the hard work of any awards committee in the least, but instead to raise a discussion about balance and fairness. Thinking back to this year’s National Book Award titles, too, you see sort of what I’m talking about: all of the contenders this year were heavily issue-driven and often dark. There were outcries for how unfair that list was because it leaned so much one way. You can’t make people happy one way or another, and something will *always* get excluded.

What I want to know and hear from you about is this: can we ever be truly fair and balanced? Should we ever? What should be part of consideration for awards lists and what shouldn’t? Where do we draw the line on awarding books for being superb books and creating a list of balanced and representative works for consideration?