STACKED

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Rewriting History (aka Lying to Our Children)

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In the most recent issue of Kirkus, there are two reviews for books that feature Laika, the dog who was sent into space by the Soviet space program and died there (a return trip was never planned). Laika’s life (and death) is dealt with sensitively and realistically in Nick Abadzis’ 2007 graphic novel, simply titled Laika.

Stories about dogs dying are not new for kids. In fact, I’d say that children’s books where the dog dies have a long and storied history in the English-speaking world, from Old Yeller to Where the Red Fern Grows to Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog. There’s even a joke that people often tell: If the children’s book has a picture of a dog on it, that dog is a goner. (“Go to the library and pick out a book with an award sticker and a dog on the cover. Trust me, that dog is going down.” -Gordan Korman’s No More Dead Dogs). Dog deaths are painful, naturally, but kids aren’t unaccustomed to reading about them.

I was a little surprised, then, to pick up the latest issue of Kirkus and read about two books being published in October that give a much more, shall we say, creative ending to Laika’s story. One seems to outright lie; the other is a bit more of a fantasy. In both of these stories, the author imagines a happier end for Laika.

In Laika: Astronaut Dog by Owen Davey (picture book, Candlewick), Laika ends up living on an alien spaceship. What really happened is mentioned in a more text-heavy author’s note, and as we know, author’s notes are often skipped. Most kids will probably know that the alien spaceship is not real, but Davey doesn’t tell us Laika’s true end in the story proper, either. Fanciful, yes. Honest? Not so much.

In A Curious Robot on Mars by James Duffett-Smith (picture book, Sky Pony Press), Laika is not the primary character. That honor belongs to the Mars rover, who discovers, after its own mission ends, that Sputnik and Laika are living on Mars and makes friends with them. Unlike Davey’s book, the entire story here is clearly a fantasy, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Laika’s true fate isn’t mentioned. Does it need to be?

I wonder what motivates this kind of historical revision. We want to save our children from pain, certainly, but that doesn’t explain why we keep publishing novels where the dog dies, where such an event is most likely meant to elicit pain. Perhaps it’s easier to deal with if it’s fictional, since we can tell our children “It’s just a story. It’s not real.” Laika’s death is real, and perhaps that makes it harder.

I can’t completely buy that argument, though, since kids whose families have dogs will most likely experience their pet’s death before they get too old. Dogs simply don’t live very long when compared to humans. Dog deaths are real; they happen to kids every day.

Perhaps it’s because Laika’s death was intentional, planned. Perhaps it’s because her story shows how adults use other living things for their own advancement, with little to no regard for that living thing’s well-being or ultimate fate. Perhaps it’s because it reveals the deliberate and casual cruelty of grown-ups, and that makes people uncomfortable. I’m not entirely sure.

I should note that the Kirkus reviewer calls out the first title as “cowardly.” (The second title is dismissed more for its artwork.) I haven’t read it myself, but it seems altogether too disingenuous. When we write about hard and painful things that happened in the past, we need to be truthful. There’s a way to do it gently and sensitively, to make it appropriate for children at different ages and maturity levels. Lying (even by omission) isn’t the way to do it.

What do you think about these stories, and others like them that sugarcoat or even rewrite unpleasant parts of history for kids?

Elsewhere in the book world

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I wanted to do a quick roundup of some of my posts in other places over the last week or so before I forget to!

Over at Book Riot, I’ve got a post today about kid lit as it has been represented on stamps throughout the world (and there are some awesome stamps here, I think — I love how differently different countries have interpreted these stories into art).

Last week at Book Riot, I talked about Sherman Alexie’s Part-Time Indian and more specifically how adults are ultimately responsible for the hyper sexualizing of young adult fiction (I borrowed a line from the mom who was angry about Alexie’s book and called the post “Fifty Shades for Kids“).

I was asked this year to be an instructor for Write On Con, a fully online and free conference for writers. It’s awesome, and you should check it out if you’re a writer OR you work with writers (this is a killer resource for teachers and librarians who work with teens who love writing). 

I wrote about the three things that good contemporary YA can teach you about writing in any genre. Because my specialty is reading rather than writing fiction, the emphasis is on examples throughout contemporary YA — so it should offer some solid contemporary (and non contemporary!) book recommendations.

Also as part of my post, I’m giving away a 10-page first chapter critique. Entering involves just commenting on the post in some way.

I think that covers it.

Have I mentioned how much Kimberly and I appreciate everyone who reads STACKED, comments here, shares our posts or otherwise engages with us? Thank you!

To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Sones

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I’ve known of Sonya Sones since I began working in a library, but I never actually picked up one of her books. She’s been perennially popular, and I thought it about time to see just why. To Be Perfectly Honest was an excellent introduction and I am looking forward to becoming familiar with her back list sooner, rather than later.

As fair warning, this review is pretty spoiler heavy. So if you don’t want to know what makes this book the way it is, come back after you’ve read it for yourself. 

Colette’s mother is a movie star, and this summer, she’s shuffling Colette and her little brother away from their home and the promise summer in Paris. They’re heading instead to a small town in California where she’s filming her next movie. Colette’s beyond bummed about this. But when she meets Connor, she starts to sing a little bit of a different tune. Maybe it won’t be so bad when there’s a cute boy around.

Something to know about Colette: she’s a liar. She lies about everything. And it’s not that she’s an unreliable narrator. She’s completely reliable — if you accept she’s a liar. 

Colette and Connor are in love or so it feels. And when Colette tells her mother she needs alone time with Connor, away from her brother, her mother grants this wish to her. She even leaves a box of condoms, in order for them to be truly safe. 

But Colette’s not ready for that quite yet. Even though she’s told Connor she’s 18 (she’s not — she’s 15) and that she’s sexually-experienced (she’s not — she’s a virgin), when the time comes for them to take their relationship somewhere more physical, she takes a stand and says no.

That’s when Connor gets back at her for her lies. 

He wants to get with Colette so badly, he tells her he has cancer. He goes as far as to make himself look sick — a slick little trick Colette herself has tried in order to get attention. As a reader, I had a suspicion he was lying about this. Part of why my suspicions were raised was because up until this point in the story, I had been on board. I couldn’t wrap my head around Sones taking such an easy way out of the story. No way would this go down the road of making the reader and Colette feel bad for Connor now because he’s got cancer. I had much more trust in the story than that, and I am so glad I did. 

But Colette is none the wiser, nor would she be. He’s convincing! His head is bald. He looks sick.

It’s all a rouse so he can get her to sleep with him. And yes, it’s a big charade for a sexual encounter, but as he tells her later, he’s gone further. It was a conquest for him. To make it more disturbing, he’s not 18 like he claims. He’s 21.

Since no sex goes down — Colette figures him and his lies out before it could happen — there’s no rape, no charges. 

But now she wants to get back and get even.

Except, Colette comes around before the big “gotcha” happens. 

The turnaround in Colette is believable and I was appreciative of it. I didn’t love her as a character but that’s why I was compelled by her. In fact, when she was prepared to take Connor for a ride herself, I was really invested. Would she REALLY go through with her plans or was this a rouse on us, as readers?

In the end, we don’t really know. Perhaps that’s what made the book successful for me as a reader, the never knowing whether what was going on was truth or if Colette was playing a big game upon us as readers. 

I felt the end of this book was almost a cheap way out of the story. But I had to remember the main character is 15 — she’d just turned 16 at that point — and so it was less of a cheap way out and more of a realistic way out of HER story. I believe her and it, even if it wasn’t my favorite ending. 

Sones masters verse novels. This is how verse works. It plays with the story, telling readers enough while leaving just the right amount UNSAID to make the reader wonder where and how Colette is leading us on. Her voice is spot on, and I thought the relationship she had with her learning-disabled younger brother was sweet and authentic. The wrap up with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend was a little schmaltzy for me, but it was believable in context of the story. 

To Be Perfectly Honest is for YA readers who like challenging characters, who like verse novels, and who are good with “tough” topics like sex, drugs, and drinking in their books. Even though Colette is on the younger side, this is one to hand to younger teen readers only if they’re ready and like those topics tackled in their books (and many do!). I wouldn’t put this on the level of Ellen Hopkins in terms of content, but I’d say it’s a stepping stone to readers who will go to Hopkins down the road. 

It’s possible I’ll talk about this in another post about repackaged book covers, but I wanted to say I love what they’ve done to update Sones’s books to appeal to today’s teens. They’ve gone through a few transformations, but these are by far my favorite:

They’re fresh and feel so contemporary. I love when books that are popular in the library, like these, do get new looks a few years after their publication because when it’s time to replace the battered or missing copies, they really do look new.

To Be Perfectly Honest is available today. Review copy received from the publisher.

The Summer Before it All: A Reading List

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I’ve talked about “new adult” books and those books which have tremendous crossover appeal because they’re the kinds of books that YA readers and adult readers would appreciate.  The main characters may be a little bit older — eighteen, nineteen — and they’re no longer in high school. They might be in college or just out of college. I’ve talked at length about “new adult” and how crossovers may or may not fit into the idea of whatever “new adult” is or might become in the future. 

But I haven’t written about those books set in that delicate place between high school and college (or whatever comes after high school in terms of more education or a career). It’s that summer of infinite possibility, where the main character straddles the line of being under the control of someone or something else and where she or he may be able to have complete and total freedom. When high school ends, that summer feels endless, both in a good way and in a bad way. In many ways, this summer is the first true taste of freedom. With that, the challenges of breaking free of the old ways of high school, of being a teenager, and the new challenges of being alone and on your own. 

It isn’t surprising that many of the books I pulled together that take place in this summer between an ending and a beginning take place on the road. The road trip narrative is, in many ways, that exact metaphor played out: you’re navigating the old, moving forward toward something new and exciting/scary. A number of these also feature a summer romance, putting to question not just the idea of a summer fling, but what change and transition plays in attachment and attraction. There’s also a lot of exploration of sexuality — again, I suspect a good deal of that being the change in social pressure, both from the high school environment and from the home environment. What you like and what feels good to you can really emerge in new and interesting ways during this summer. 

This is a small list of YA books that take place in that summer. I’d love to know of more titles that address this time period. I’m not interested in those books which use this time period as part of their time period. I want the books to be solidly set only in this period — so Just One Day wouldn’t count because it then follows through the following school year. I’m particularly interested in male-led stories, too. I have a small number from my memory/notes, but I know there have to be others as well. If there are any adult marketed titles that tackle this summer, lay those on me as well. As usual, my reading leans realistic, but if there are genre titles that fit the topic, leave those in the comments, too. 

All descriptions are from WorldCat.

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler: Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong.

The After Girls by Leah Konen: When their best friend Astrid commits suicide after high school graduation, Ella searches for answers while Sydney tries to dull the pain, and both girls look to uncover Astrid’s dark secrets when they receive a mysterious Facebook message.

With or Without You by Brian Farrey: When eighteen-year-old best friends Evan and Davis of Madison, Wisconsin, join a community center group called “chasers” to gain acceptance and knowledge of gay history, there may be fatal consequences.

A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger: Suffering a hangover from a graduation party, eighteen-year-old Whitley is blindsided by the news that her father has moved into a house with his fiancée, her thirteen-year-old daughter Bailey, and her son Nathan, in whose bed Whitley had awakened that morning.

Kiss the Morning Star by Elissa Janine Hoole: The summer after high school graduation and one year after her mother’s tragic death, Anna and her long-time best friend Kat set out on a road trip across the country, armed with camping supplies and a copy of Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums, determined to be open to anything that comes their way.

Wanderlove by Kirsten Hubbard: Bria, an aspiring artist just graduated from high school, takes off for Central America’s La Ruta Maya, rediscovering her talents and finding love.

The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour: Colby’s post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Bev would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen: During her last summer at home before leaving for college, Emaline begins a whirlwind romance with Theo, an assistant documentary filmmaker who is in town to make a movie.

When You Were Here by Daisy Whitney: When his mother dies three weeks before his high school graduation, Danny goes to Tokyo, where his mother had been going for cancer treatments, to learn about the city his mother loved and, with the help of his friends, come to terms with her death.

The Infinite Moment of Us by Lauren Myracle: As high school graduation nears, Wren Gray is surprised to connect with gentle Charlie Parker, a boy with a troubled past who has loved her for years, while she considers displeasing her parents for the first time and changing the plans for her future. This book comes out later in August.

Roomies by Sara Zarr and Tara Altebrando: While living very different lives on opposite coasts, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth and eighteen-year-old Lauren become acquainted by email the summer before they begin rooming together as freshmen at UC-Berkeley. This book comes out at the end of the year, and the story ends when the girls meet one another in person.

Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker: Quinn plans to enjoy her summer in Austin, Texas, working for a record company, even though she has to live with her cousin Penny. The description doesn’t tell you a whole lot about much, but it’s set in the summer before Quinn goes to college. Not related to the setting, but I really dig the new cover for this one — it’s a fan-designed cover for the ebook version that Walker just released herself via Kindle (it was published in print by Harper). 

Will & Whit by Laura Lee Gulledge

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We’re human. All we are are beautiful contradictions.


Will — short for Wilhelmina after her deceased grandmother — is a creative soul. Will lives with her aunt who runs the family antique store; it’s a job she inherited. It was only a year ago that Will moved in with her aunt Ella, after her mother and father died tragically and suddenly.

Important things to know about Willa that she’ll tell you herself: she’s an old soul. She loves creating lamps and playing with light. And she’s scared of the dark.

Important things to know about Willa that she won’t tell you: she’s creative, passionate, romantic, and deeply aching inside from all of the loss in her life these last few years. When hurricane Whitney roars into town and the city is left without power, Willa is forced to face the shadows in her life head-on. Is she as strong as the face she’s putting on? Is she allowed to show a moment of weakness? Can she let herself have a break?

Will & Whit is Laura Lee Gulledge’s sophomore graphic novel, and while it’s not as compelling as Page by Paige, it’s still a well-drawn, well-written story about the means and ways of creative people. This is the kind of book that you know the readership for — it’s those teens who always feel a little on the outside, who love to creative and express and explore and sometimes lose the core of themselves in the midst of it or who feel like they’ll never fit in with other people because of their passion. They live big lives internally and externally, even when it means that sometimes, their wants and their drive can collide with real world things.

Will is an incredibly complex main character. She comes off at times like she’s well beyond her years, but she’s really not. Will puts on a tough face, and it’s one she carries off by constantly reminding people how awesome and talented they are while taking a step back and brushing off those things in herself. This is her grieving process. She can’t break, and she won’t allow herself the chance to cry, to get angry, to feel all of the ugly things that accompany loss. Doing so would mean she can’t be there for her aunt. It would mean not being there for her best friends Autumn and Noel. It would mean not being the cheerleader in everyone else’s life.

But she can’t escape those shadows, even as she tries to repress them.

The storm is what sets the story into motion. Will has agreed to help a group of local kids with their low-budget carnival (think talent show more than ferris wheels here) by getting her friend to do a puppet show. But when the power is knocked out and the carnival kids need someone who can help illuminate the show, they seek her out personally. She has the light skills. She has the passion for creating and manipulating light. This is her chance to shine — literally. It’s a small and subtle moment but it highlights the entirety of Will’s story: rather than step in and offer her own talents to the show when she hears about it, she offers up the talent of her friend. Even when she herself is asked to take part, she’s still a little take aback that she has something worthwhile to offer.

When she’s convinced, though, she discovers the importance of letting herself showcase her talents . . . and letting herself be comforted by those who love and care about her when she needs it.

There’s a romantic subplot in Will & Whit that follows Autumn and one of the theater kids, who ends up not being all he’s cracked up to be. Autumn, who is Indian, chooses to change her appearance for him, even. But doing so left her alone in the end, and she discovers that embracing who she is — as she is — will snag her the sort of boyfriend she deserves. And, well, who happens to have been there all along. Will, too, will get a chance to have something romantic happen in her life, as well, and both instances work well in the story. They don’t feel shoved in and they feel authentic.

In many ways, Will & Whit reminds me of Drama by Raina Telgemeier and I think they’d make good read alikes. Gulledge’s story is a little bit more mature, though I wouldn’t hesitate to hand it to a middle school reader who was ready for an older story. Both books are about creative kids and about how embracing that creativity matters. Both encourage teens to be happy with who they are and to chase those things which matter to them. There are also some interesting comparisons to be drawn about the stage crew story — being “in the back” of the show — in Telgemeier’s story and Will’s knowledge of, experience with, and passion for lighting and the role that plays in getting the carnival going. Likewise, both books make their characters talk, interact, and look like the age group they’re portraying. There is no doubt that Will is 17 and that her friends are all in that age group. Even Reese, who is Noel’s 13-year-old sister, looks 13, as opposed to 17 like her brother and his friends.

I’d hoped for a little bit more of a relationship to be seen between Will and her aunt because I was
curious to know more about her aunt. Like Will, she, too, experienced a great amount of loss in a short time. Perhaps it’s the description Will gives of Ella at the beginning of the book which captured me most about Ella and which is something I’d personally aspire to be: quietly badass (this is as profane as the story gets). Why there isn’t more of a relationship ultimately makes sense, though: Will has tried to be the strong one for both of them, and as such, she hasn’t allowed herself to let Ella in. I suspect that after this story’s close, their relationship becomes what I’d hoped to see, and I can settle for that.

Gulledge’s art is fun and her characters are bold. Her people stand out in every scene, but it’s never at the expense of the scene around them. Because this is a story about people and not things, it’s important that they do stand on their own.

I appreciated the black and white only method here, particularly because it plays well into the story itself, about darkness and light, about power being on and then being lost. About storms that come and shake things up and then leave you to pick up the pieces. The black and white illustrations are not boring; they’re perhaps as bright and powerful as possible throughout. The use of shadows swirling behind Will are at times loud and at other times soft and subtle. It mirrors her feelings and how she interacts with and allows herself to have them. When the power goes off, the book goes much darker, as well — and as Will explained at the start of the story, the third thing you need to know about her is that she is afraid of the dark. It’s when she cannot suppress the shadows any more. It’s when she cannot control the light because it is out of her control. It’s smart stuff.

It’s worth checking out the tumblr that Gulledge has going for Will & Whit. Pass this along to artsy readers who enjoy graphic novels and those who like graphic novels that are stand alones. I think Gulledge’s book is also a great pick for readers who are more reluctant to try a graphic novel. It’s a very nice introduction to the format.

Will & Whit is available now. Copy borrowed from my library.