STACKED

books

Here’s an opportunity. Let’s not screw it up.

|

I’m a staunch advocate of guys reading. Early in my career as a librarian, I had the extraordinary opportunity to hear Michael Sullivan speak about boys and reading, and it really changed a lot of my views about how to reach male readers (you can read those posts about seeing him here, here, and here). The biggest take away from hearing him and my guiding principle when it comes to collection development, reader’s advisory, book lists and displays, and other general book/reading promotion is to avoid letting these things be tampered by my own biases. I like certain books and genres, and there are certain books and genres I don’t care for. But seeing the library and the reading world is not all about me and my beliefs, I know I have to remove my own lenses. I have to look out for the kinds of books that don’t interest me at all because to be effective and to reach readers, I have to remember it’s not about me. This sometimes means that I am going to read and advocate for books that have a certain male appeal to them. And I’m okay with it — I embrace it actually, since it helps me gain perspective into other people and how to reach new people. 

This week, School Library Journal posted a piece about a school that addressed this very problem of guy reading. The solution this para/librarian duo took was to develop a boys’ reading cave, a space where guys could feel comfortable in the library (with additional links from Liz Burns worth reading here). It’s stocked with books that have a particular boy appeal aspect to them.

From the outside, this looks like a great idea. For boys, especially those who are at the tender grade levels these kids are at, reading IS a problem. By third grade, boys tend to be behind their female counterparts in reading, so by developing a space in the library that has a collection of books with great boy appeal and that feels safe to them because it is their “own” space, the library appears to have solved a problem. And I do applaud them for taking the effort in addressing their boys, especially because they had boy input on the project from the start.

This project is troubling to me, though. But before I delve into why, let me start with a couple other things.

If you’re going to be a reading advocate, whether as a librarian or as a teacher or just because you love books period, you have a huge sense of responsibility. You need to understand that readers have different needs and you need to understand you have readers and you have “non readers.” You need to understand that not every book is going to reach everyone.

I’m always particularly troubled when I see librarians talk about moving away from books and reading because that’s not what their teens want. It bothers me when librarians — especially those in public and school libraries — talk about how their teens don’t want books. That they want programs and space to do things, not read things. While it’s entirely valid that teens want a space and NEED that kind of space in their communities, this attitude is belittling to those teens who are readers. Teens who are readers aren’t always the loudest ones who come in the library. They’re not always the ones who come and visit their librarian. But it doesn’t mean their needs aren’t as valid or as worthy. It just means they approach their library in a different way.

It means you have to reach out to them differently. It means you have to continue keeping your knowledge of what’s out there up-to-date, and it means you need to keep your collection fresh. It means you do a lot more “passive” marketing — you make book displays to promote different books, you write shelf talkers (where you write book recommendations on cards and stick them on book shelves), you make book lists and have them available in your teen area, and you make the effort to reach those teens in ways that are going to be different than the way you reach teens who use their libraries for a creating space, for programs, and so forth. It is a lot of work, and it never gets easier!

Cutting your readers out entirely from your library plan? You’re letting your own beliefs overtake your job. You’re creating a biased and unwelcoming space for an entire segment of your community, whether or not it’s your intention.

In creating a “boys cave” at the school library, this duo has done precisely that. I do not in any way believe this was intentional, but it happened, and it’s getting the sort of push back from the community it deserves. Read the last statement in the story. Lynne Hanes, when asked about whether the library would offer up a special space for girls states “[P]art of my concern is that girls will check out books from a boys’ area, but I’m not sure how many boys will check out books from a girls’ area. We don’t want to restrict books.” Even though there have been “boy” books pulled into this section, girls aren’t restricted from checking them out. But the belief is that by creating a “girl” books section, no boys would be welcome. In other words, girls will be interested in “boy” books but boys won’t be interested in “girl” books.

There are two issues going on here: first, the gendering of books and second, the gendering of space.

Books do not have genders. Yes, there are books with particular boy appeal and particular girl appeal but I don’t believe anyone sets out to write a book with the intention of making it one thing or another. And as I talked about in previous posts about guys reading, boys do tend to like different kinds of books than girls. It’s not hard and fast, and there are no rules, but they have some different tastes and preferences. When you’re building a library or you’re advocating for books, being aware of those things (which are based primarily in psychology, in behavior, and maybe most importantly, in the way we socialize boys in our culture) helps you make sure you’re meeting some of those interests. It should be a way to guide you away from your personal biases and a way for you to see how diverse people’s interests and passions are. But it’s not a set of rules or a blueprint.

While I applaud the idea of having books pulled that have appeal to boys, it needs to be approached in a way that is not exclusionary. The way it’s being done here is exclusionary, even if girls are allowed into the boys space to borrow them. These books are being labeled as boy books, rather than what they really are. They’re books with certain appeal factors, and these appeal factors don’t stop at gender lines. Books on boogers and the gross aspects of the human body have mega appeal to boy readers. But they also appeal to girl readers. Instead of pulling them out of the general collection and tossing them in a boys section, why couldn’t they be pulled out into a display or into a special area and be called a “gross books” area? Besides being more accurate as to what the books are and being much more appealing to readers, here’s an opportunity for boys AND girls to bond over their interest in something in a shared space in the library. Books that have strong, fast-paced plot lines with male main characters that are certainly going to appeal to boy readers can be pulled together and labeled as “action adventure!” Not only is is accurate but it appeals to both boys and girls in the same space. I bet if you clicked on my book lists linked above, you’ll notice I DO have a book list geared toward boys. But I also have a book list for girls, too. If you’re going to offer one, you absolutely must offer the other.

Gendering books makes books safe or unsafe spaces, and it only goes further when the library itself is divided into gendered areas. Going back to the comment from one of the boys wishing for a “no girls” sign in the “boys cave” is hugely problematic and gets to the root of why developing this space is troubling. This library is furthering the belief that there are places that should be for boys only or for girls only. But worse, because this library only has a male space, it’s sending a statement to girls that they don’t matter. That their needs aren’t as valid or important. Because girls have always had the library as a space for them, and they’ve always had books that meet their needs. Because girls are always readers and will continue being readers, whether or not you do anything to help them find books or feel safe.

What a load of shit. 

Even if the intention was to build a space that feels safe to boys, those good intentions turned the tables in making a certain area unsafe for girls.

I’m not going to blame this particular staff for what they’ve done because I do believe they think they’ve done something great here in addressing a problem. Rather, I’m going to put it out there that the bulk of problems we see (or don’t see) in advocating for reading is the result of our own shortcomings. It’s the result of us not taking off our own biases and thinking about how to approach things on a grander level. It’s the result of forgetting that the library, the classroom, the act of reading does not belong to us alone. It belongs to a far greater community, one made up of boys and girls and those kids who don’t associate themselves with one gender or the other. If we segment off books and if we segment off spaces and declare that reading belongs to one group or the other, we’re participating in a dangerous game. We’re gendering everything in a world where gender is nothing but a construct we’ve created.

Isn’t the reading world about breaking apart constructs? Isn’t the reading world about letting people find what they need, no matter who or what they are?

Shouldn’t the library allow this to happen by being a safe and inviting space for everyone and not just one gender or the other?

via http://unicornbooty.com/blog/2012/04/05

More than that, though, shouldn’t we, as advocates of reading and of reaching those who are or aren’t “readers” be more open minded? Shouldn’t we be the founts of knowledge? Shouldn’t we be the ones seeing the need before it arises and meeting it in a non-biased manner?

I’ve always seen the library (and the classroom and the reading world more wholly) as belonging to everyone. Part of what makes these places safe is that they ARE where anyone can find their niche. It is absolutely our responsibility as advocates to not perpetuate constructs. It’s our job to break them apart.

It’s not an issue of whether or not solving problems is hard. It’s an issue of whether or not we’re willing to put in the true effort to do it in a way that empowers everyone, rather than belittles them.

Struck by Jennifer Bosworth

|

Seventeen-year-old Mia Price is addicted. But not to alcohol, drugs, or any of the other usual suspects. Mia is addicted to lightning strikes. She’s been struck numerous times throughout her life, can feel storms coming on, and craves the rush of being struck. She even has the scars all over her body to prove it, ones she covers up with full body clothing and gloves. But the one storm Mia didn’t sense coming wasn’t related to lightning at all. It was an earthquake, the earthquake that destroyed Los Angeles, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Downtown L.A. was reduced to an area called the Waste, with collapsed skyscrapers and debris. And the beaches of Venice and Santa Monica were converted into Tentville, where the poor and homeless set up temporary living quarters and a man called Prophet established his home base. Prophet, who claims to have predicted the quake, has drawn many under his spell with his charismatic presence and vehement preaching about the end of days, repentence, and sin.

In the aftermath of the quake, Mia and her brother Parker are responsible for taking care of their mother, who is suffering from Post-traumatic stress disorder, and who is gradually falling deeper under Prophet’s spell. Mia trades for anti-anxiety meds on the black market, venturing into the slums and risking her life, and the siblings go back to school to obtain the rare food rations that they will receive there. It is on this first day of school that Mia’s life changes even more. She is soon caught between a group called the Seekers, who believe that Mia’s lightning scars signify something special, called the “Spark,” Jeremy, a strange boy who once tried to kill her but now claims to be saving her life, and Prophet’s followers. But when Mia discovers that Prophet’s message of the end of days, and another final storm, may just become reality, and that she is crucial to this vision, she has decide who to align herself with.
While I’m a bit burnt out on post-apocalyptic fiction, Struck was a compelling read that dealt with a unique concept –the end of days as brought upon by weather phenomenon, rather than corrupt ruling authorities. The idea of a girl being tied up with this extreme weather was an interesting addition, although I wish that Bosworth would have fleshed out Mia’s connection with lightning more. We learn about her backstory a bit, about how lightning affects her and the effects her ‘condition’ has had on other people in her life. Yet we never find out exactly why Mia is a human lightning rod. Is it something she was born with or something that affected her suddenly? And if it did only occur when she was first struck by lightning, why? A little clarification would have made her journey a bit more clear for me.
Another unique topic that this book tackles is that of extreme religion and the dangers of blindly following a religious leader. I rarely see books dealing with religion in YA lit, and Struck deals with the extreme limits of this subject matter, painting religion, and blind adherence to faith, as dangerous. This can be a risky move, as many readers may be religious and take Bosworth’s characters as a condemnation of their own beliefs. However, Prophet is sufficiently evil, and his actions so extreme, that Bosworth manages to condemn religious extremism rather than religion.
One personal quibble of mine is the Jeremy character. I am not a fan of the “protagonist being unexplainably attracted to the compelling boy” cliche, which I see used over and over in paranormal fiction. This instant attraction just seems like an easy out to me, a way for an author to establish a relationship without dealing with the experiences that actually establish a relationship in real-life. Relationship and character development took a back seat to world building in Struck.
However, despite these complaints, I still enjoyed Struck, and raced through it quite quickly. I always respect originality and taking chances in my books.
Disclosure: Review copy received from publisher.
Struck will be published on May 8, 2012.

Twitterview: Antony John

|

This month’s Twitterview guest is none other than Antony John, author of the forthcoming Thou Shalt Not Road Trip, as well as Five Flavors of Dumb, Busted, and the Fall 2012 title Elementals. He’s here to talk about road trips, brother relationships, music, and more. I give Antony some huge props for tackling this Twitterview with his signature charm and humor — this is his first time “tweeting,” and I think he has the hang of 140-characters down pat! 

As a bonus, there’s a giveaway of Thou Shalt Not Road Trip at the end of the Twitterview.

Without further ado, here’s Antony: 
p { margin-bottom: 0.08in; }
Pitch Thou Shalt Not Road Trip in 140 characters.
Luke’s on Route 66 to promote his book, Hallelujah. His ex-crush is hitching a ride. It’ll be life-changing. Just not in the way he expects.
What inspired Thou Shalt Not Road Trip?
A spiritual connection with Route 66 & vivid recollections of some weird theological discussions from my youth.
What should readers walk away with from Thou Shalt Not Road Trip?
Two lessons (it’s vital to communicate; you can’t please everyone, and you really shouldn’t try) and several laughs.
Faith and conviction are big themes in the story (not just spiritually, but in terms of relationships, too). Talk a bit about that.
It’s hard to keep faith in someone (or something) during rapid and unexpected change. I wanted to explore that from several angles.
This is a book set on the road — did you have a favorite place to write about in Thou Shalt Not Road Trip?
Maybe Devil’s Elbow, an old Route 66 river crossing. It’s totally neglected now, but you can see why people used to stop for the view.
Why the choice to set this story on the road?
I love road trips—in which literal and metaphorical journeys collide—and Route 66 runs through Missouri, which is where I live!
Sibling stories are growing in the YA world. How would you describe Luke and brother Matt’s relationship?
Complicated. They want to believe in each other and remain close, but circumstances make that difficult. True for a lot siblings, I guess.
Who or what do you write for?
I write for teen me: the quintessential reluctant reader. I needed drama, and flawed characters, and lots of plot twists. Still do actually!
What was your most influential read as a teenager?
THE OUTSIDERS, hands down. It was so far removed from my own experience growing up in England, and the voice was just electrifying.
Who are your top three writing influences?
For how they affect my writing, it’d be: my wife, Audrey; my agent, Ted; and my editor, Liz. They’re my A-Team.
Who do you believe is breaking ground in YA right now?
Too many authors to count. Meg Rosoff, Sara Zarr, John Green, Suzanne Collins, etc etc. This is a great time to be in YA.
What’s the best writing advice you ever received?
Read your work out loud. It’s the true litmus test. If it sounds right when you read aloud, it’ll work when read silently.
What’s your best writing advice to give?
Enjoy the process of writing. Whether you write for fun or as a career, you have to enjoy it. Otherwise, find something you like more.
What is your writing routine?
Drop the kids at school and get writing immediately. After lunch, attempt to deal with everything else. Fail. Make a cup of tea instead.
What gets you jazzed to write?
Everything. I never lack for motivation. I have so many books I want to write. I just need more time!
Music is your background. How does it influence your writing?
I tend to obsess over structure – making sure the sections of the book feel balanced—and pacing (even down to the rhythm of a sentence).
Do you have a writing soundtrack? Care to share a bit?
Depends on the project. Classical mixes for fantasy (very atmospheric) and rock for contemporary. But my tastes are very eclectic (i.e. weird).
What’s next for you?
ELEMENTAL – a fantasy adventure set on the Outer Banks, featuring teens who control the elements . . . all except one. Coming fall 2012.
Favorite ice cream?
Haagen-Dazs Pralines and Cream, although I haven’t had it in ages. Too long, to be honest. Actually, I’m off to get some right now.

 

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip by Antony John

|

Imagine being 16 and writing a best-selling novel and having your publishing house send you on a cross-country tour to promote the book. Sounds a little bit like a dream, but that’s what happens to Luke in Antony John’s Thou Shalt Not Road Trip.

Luke’s penned an inspirational novel about faith titled Hallelujah, and his tour kicks off in California, half a country away from his home town of St Louis, Missouri. Fortunately, he’s not going on tour alone — his older brother Matt is acting as his chauffeur. At his first tour stop, Luke is overwhelmed by the reception he and his book have received from so many people — what he thought of as simply a book about his journey toward understanding faith and coming to terms with his spirituality as a 16-year-old has touched the lives of many people, and they want him to know.

Oh, and then there’s Fran. Fran is Luke’s former best friend/crush/maybe former girlfriend. They haven’t talked in a long time. Things between them haven’t been peachy for a while. But surprise — she shows up to see him on tour and he finds out that she’ll be joining them on the tour, what looked like a fun experience has turned into a bit of a nightmare for Luke.

Maybe it’s unfair of me, but I was worried about reading this book. It tackles a topic I don’t care to read a whole lot about, which is spirituality and belief. That’s not to say it’s not an important topic, but it’s one I prefer not to spend a lot of time with. However, I was so wrong. What John did in this novel is far better than offer up a story about an enlightened teenager spreading his word about belief and faith. He’s written a novel about a teen boy who thinks he knows the meaning of faith and conviction, when in fact, he hasn’t the slightest clue. Not only that, but this book does a great job of balancing the serious issues with a lot of humor.

Luke’s a believable 16-year-old boy, aside from the mega book deal — but that’s where the humor is. The situation is outlandishly funny, as Luke’s sent on this publicity tour without as much as a publicist or a parent; instead, his college-age brother will be helping him along the way. Sure he can call his publicist, but he nor the publicist seem particularly interested in keeping in contact through a lot of the story. His spiritual memoir’s in its 5th printing, and he’s getting prominent display space in New York City book stores as further promotion. Although we know what his book is about, as readers, we’re on the outside of understanding who Luke is and where his beliefs really lie. That is, we know a lot about what makes him well-liked and respected, but we don’t get to experience it first-hand. This technique works quite well initially, as it allows us to discover that Luke’s not as put together as he seems. He’s imperfect.

When Fran enters the story, we learn from Luke that she’s a different person than she was the year before. Back then, she was on the straight and narrow, and she was the kind of girl who blended in at school. That’s what made Luke like her so much — she didn’t try to stand out or try to be anyone she wasn’t. But this last year, she’s dyed her hair a funky color and she’s become much different than she was before. It makes him uncomfortable, and his prejudice against her appearance causes him to drop Fran as a friend, leaving her without the sort of support system she needed. The sort of support that would have helped her feel good about herself when she needed it. And it’s in this break time that Luke pens his book and earns his acclaim.

Except Fran knows he’s a phony.

That’s the precise reason she’s decided to seek him out on his tour. Fran wants to confront him about what he did to her, how he abandoned her, and how it makes her feel. As much as this is a story about Fran seeking solace in what happened to them, it’s also a story about Luke’s continued feelings for her. As much as he dropped her, part of the reason he did it was because he was afraid to like someone so different from himself. Someone who wasn’t as spiritually enlightened as he believed himself to be. During the course of their cross-country trip, Luke learns there’s something much darker about Fran, too: she’s got a drinking problem. At this point, it’s clear how different their paths are and how far apart they’ve grown. But this trip? It’s much more than Luke’s publicity tour. It’s a chance for them to patch things up.

Dialog rings true to character and age in the book, though I had a bit of a hangup with back story. While we get the opportunity to know Luke and Fran in the current day, I didn’t feel like I got a good grasp on what caused the rift in their relationship earlier. There is a lot of unpacking baggage and coming to terms with the notions of faith and conviction, but because it’s set against what their relationship once was, I hoped to get a stronger sense of how the relationship once was. It’s there, but had it been sussed out a bit more, the payoff at the end of the story (as well as the moments of watching Fran break down) would have been more powerful.

Thou Shalt Not Road Trip will appeal to a lot of readers — the road trip aspect will work for readers who love those stories, but readers who like a good male lead character will find Luke authentic and easy to relate to, even with the mega best seller thrown in. This one will work really well for readers who do like stories about faith and spiritual belief, as it’s both about testing those convictions and coming to understand the implications and meanings behind them. Readers who have hit every book in Christian fiction or who want a story that traverses some of those themes without being a certain type of Christian story will find there is much to be enjoyed here. I hesitated in writing a recommendation like that because John skillfully writes a story that will work for those who have absolutely no interest in that kind of story, too — there’s a lot to be enjoyed in the relationship between two brothers in the book, as well, and I don’t think there are a whole lot of strong brother stories out there. It’s a book that’s easy to hand to a wide array of readers.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Thou Shalt Not Road Trip will be available April 12.

The Traitor in the Tunnel by Y. S. Lee

|

I’ve looked forward to the new Agency book for some time now. Good historical mystery series are legion in the adult realm, but harder to find in YA. Mary Quinn and her exploits definitely fit the bill. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed the third entry, The Traitor in the Tunnel, it was ultimately a bit of a letdown. Overall, it’s a good book and certainly worth a read, but it’s the least satisfying entry so far.
The reason for my disappointment is the mystery aspect of the novel. The writing is still excellent, Mary is a great character, and her relationships with various other ancillary characters are further developed (in particular with James Easton). But most of the story centers around Mary’s relationship with a man who may or may not be her long-dead father, and there wasn’t much surprising or interesting to that portion.
The actual mystery of the book starts out very small: Mary has been assigned to Buckingham Palace as a parlor maid to investigate a series of petty thefts there. Soon, Mary stumbles across a larger mystery, which could send the entire royal family into scandal: the Prince of Wales was involved in a drunken altercation, and his friend was killed by a Lascar. The Lascar – an opium addict – has the same name as Mary’s father, and Mary is determined to find out what happened that night and clear her maybe-father’s name, if she can, as well as develop some sort of relationship with him.
Then there’s a little to-do with the underground sewers needing repair, and James Easton’s company has been hired to do the job. Here’s where the real problem lies. The solutions to the mysteries I mentioned above (the thefts and the altercation with the Lascar) are pedestrian and not really mysteries at all. Telling you the solution would be spoiling it, but really, there’s nothing to spoil. What could have been interesting was the mystery in the sewers, but it’s not explored until very late in the book, and the climax follows within a few dozen pages of it being introduced.
The last thing I’ll mention is actually a spoiler, so if you plan to read this book and haven’t yet, stop reading now. Near the end of the book, the Agency splits up. Its two managers, Anne Treleaven and Felicity Frame, had been having divergent ideas about how the Agency should be run: Felicity wanted to involve men and take cases on a larger scale, whereas Anne wanted to keep it strictly women-only and keep the cases small and unobtrusive. At the end of the Traitor in the Tunnel, the Agency has been dissolved and Mary is left to decide which person she will follow, or to strike out on her own. 
I really wasn’t a huge fan of this turn of events – the series is called “The Agency” after all, and part of what drew me to the books is that they were about an all-female spy agency. When that’s taken away, it doesn’t seem nearly as interesting. I’ll still read the other books, but I’m curious to see what direction Lee plans to takes the series now that the Agency is apparently out of the picture.
Although the mysteries were a letdown, I did really like Mary’s interactions with James Easton (pretty swoony, I must admit). Octavius Jones also makes a return, and the scenes he shares with Mary are pretty darn funny. I also have to give major credit to Lee for the subplot involving Mary and the Prince of Wales. Mary contemplates doing something pretty major, and the way it’s described reminded me that I was reading a book about a woman who was now twenty years old – no longer a teenager. It also reminded me that spies in Mary’s situation really do have to contemplate doing some pretty major stuff, despite how unrealistic the idea of The Agency actually is.
Book borrowed from my local library.