Day: June 8, 2009

Confused YA Lit Article

| Tasha

Why should I be surprised, really?  Isn’t it just the norm to have a look at teen literature that is shallow, dismissive and uninformed?  This time it is the Wall Street Journal that has an article like this.  The title alone should have warned me away:  It Was, Like, All Dark and Stormy.

The author of the article, Katie Roiphe, manages to minimize The Hunger Games, Thirteen Reasons Why, Wintergirls, and If I Stay in a single article.  Quite the accomplishment!  All of them are lumped together into proof that the pink and purple world of teen books (when was that?!) has morphed into a frightening rollercoaster ride straight to doom. 

She shows a remarkable confusion about why teens read darker fiction:

Unsettling as it is, there is a certain amount of comfort to be gleaned from the new disaster fiction; it makes its readers feel less alone. What is striking in the response to these books is how many teenagers seem to identify with their characters, even though their experiences (suicide, car crashes, starvation, murder) would seem to place them on the outer fringes of normal life.

The one redeeming feature is that by the end of the article she seems to start to get it.  She calls these books “more uplifting” than light teen books.  And she concludes her article with:

As alarming as these books are, there is in all of this bleakness a wholesome and old-fashioned redemption that involves principles like triumph over adversity and affirmations of integrity.

Too bad she didn’t go back and use that insight to fix the beginning of the article!

Thunder-Boomer!

| Tasha

Thunder-Boomer by Shutta Crum, illustrated by Carol Thompson.

This picture book starts with a hot summer day, filled with tractors plowing, no breeze, and a panting dog.  Then a small breeze comes, bringing with it dark threatening clouds.  The family runs to get the laundry off the line and the chickens in the hen house.  Then with a rumble of thunder, the rain comes. Dad is forced back into the storm to rescue one wayward chicken.  As the storm worsens, the wind blows, the lightning crackles and the thunder – Booms!  Everyone in the house, including the chicken.  After a bout of hail, the sun returns and Maizie, the chicken, heads off alone again.  When the little girl checks on her, she gets a surprise.

This picture book perfectly captures the power of a big thunderstorm, the wonder of the wind, the dance of hail, and then that amazing clearing afterwards.  One can almost hear the tentative birdsong and the dripping afterwards.  Filled with sound words, young readers will enjoy making noises but soon will be caught up in the drama of the storm.  Thompson’s illustrations are lively and dramatic, offering both smaller detailed pictures and larger images that capture the action.  The engaging inclusion of a lost pair of Dad’s underwear in the storm helps to keep the storm from being too powerful for young children. 

Appropriate for ages 4-6, this book is a great summer book to share.  It reads aloud well, just make sure to leave time for plenty of putt-putting tractors, booms of thunder, and clucking chickens in the audience.

Faith, Hope and Ivy June

| Tasha

Faith, Hope and Ivy June by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Even though they both live in Kentucy, Ivy June and Catherine live very different lives.  Through a school student exchange program, now they each have a chance to see how other people live.  Ivy June lives in a small cabin in the hills by Thunder Creek with her grandparents because her parents’ home was too crowded.  They don’t have an indoor bathroom but they do have an incredible view of the entire mountain just a short walk away.  Catherine lives with her family in Lexington.  She attends a private school, wears designer clothes, and has more than one indoor bathroom.  On the surface the two girls will have nothing in common but when tragedy strikes, all differences are forgotten.

Naylor has created a story of two girls who have a chance to be friends but may not be able to see past their differences to reach that point.  There are twists and turns in their relationship with one another that refreshingly have nothing to do with their economic status.  Naylor also does an admirable job of making the harrowing job of coal mining real to young readers.  It is a joy to read a book with a heroine like Ivy June who is complicated and refreshingly unashamed of her poor upbringing.  It is equally wonderful to find a wealthy girl like Catherine who faces challenges when staying with Ivy June but remains eager to see what her life is really like.  Naylor never strays near stereotypes, instead focusing on the similarities of the two girls even when they can’t see it themselves. 

A complex tale of friendship and connection, this book will have readers questioning what stereotypes they believe in.  Appropriate for ages 9-12.