The 100 top entries in each of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award categories have been announced. On June 13th, Amazon Publishing will announce the top five that advance to the semi-final. The semifinalists for the Young Adult Fiction category are here. The award goes to an unpublished or self-published novel that will then be published by Amazon Publishing.
Children’s book author Jonathan Emmett says that “boys are being deterred from reading because the ‘gatekeepers’ to children’s literature are mostly women.” The gatekeepers are editors, publishers, librarians, judges and reviewers of children’s books.
According to an article in The Times of London that is summarized on a more accessible page at Publishing Perspectives, he believes that there isn’t enough boy-friendly elements in children’s books. I’m honestly not sure what books he’s been looking at because he then goes on to name some pretty big themes in children’s titles: “battling pirate ships” and “technical details about spaceships.”
He does have some support from a couple of female authors who incongruously to the very claim of the author write very boy-friendly titles. And he has done his research. Out of 400 reviews in five British newspapers, less than 20% of the picture book reviews were written by men and less than a third of the fiction reviews. That compares to 47% of the picture books being written by men and 41% of the children’s books.
Now wait. So the claim is that the powerful cadre of women who control publishing, like LIBRARIANS as an example, are using the reviews that they write to weed out the boy friendly titles? Or is the claim that the female publishers are controlling the writing of the male authors and making sure that they are not filled with swords, battles, dragons, pirates, etc.
As a children’s librarian, I worked hard to get titles children love into the right hands. If a boy or girl, because this is even more of that gender-focus that doesn’t help anything in our culture, comes in and asks for pirate books, I merrily get them those books. Books into hands. That’s all I want to manage.
But perhaps the most disgusting part of logical extension of the author’s claim is that we as women are out to emasculate male children by withholding books they would prefer to read. Producing books that reflect a softened, feminized version of our world, no battling pirates, no technical information, no baddies smoking, few if any baddies at all. What misogynistic crap!
Women are writing some of the most captivating and violent books for children and teens.
Women are the ones in the low-paying jobs of teacher and librarian who get books into the hands of children.
Women are the ones who take the time to listen to the small voices of children and pick those marvelous Captain Underpants books off the shelves for them among many others.
Women are worried about the gender gap in reading and are having conversations about how best to collect books in our libraries that boys (and non-reading girls) will enjoy.
Women, professionally and as moms and grandmothers, are powerful, I agree with Mr. Emmett about that. It is our power that will help solve this issue, not perpetuate it.
Enjoy the “Metaphor” clip from the upcoming Fault in Our Stars movie:
The movie trailer for If I Stay has been released:
Here are the links I shared on my Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr accounts this week that I think are pretty cool:
CHILDREN’S BOOK
Heather Tomlinson – Blog – Continuing the "diversity" conversation http://buff.ly/1imBCCy #kidlit
Hogwarts Is Here is like a MOOC for Harry Potter fans, and you can enroll online for free. http://buff.ly/1p6IRUq #kidlit
Katherine Rundell: ‘wouldn’t it be fantastic if people actually did live up here on rooftops and nobody knows?’s http://buff.ly/1p6LmG7
We Need Bigger Megaphones for Diversity in Kid Lit | BOOK RIOT http://buff.ly/1imBa7e #kidlit
EBOOKS
It’s an Ebook World for Young Readers 13 and Under Says PlayCollective Report | SLJ http://buff.ly/1m7EHJI #ebooks
LIBRARIES
YA LIT
8 Young Adult Books That Should Be Movies (And Who Should Star in Them) http://buff.ly/OP81Gi #yalit
Are Teen Girls Seeing Themselves Reflected in What They Read? http://buff.ly/1l1NOHO #kidlit
James Patterson wins the 2014 Chicago Tribune Young Adult Literary Award. http://buff.ly/1l1S0Yk #kidlit
Read This, Then That: TALKER 25 and Other Fantastic YA Dragon Tales | BOOK RIOT http://buff.ly/OP8pVd #yalit
Stacked: Revisiting YA Verse Novels: A 2014 Guide to the Format http://buff.ly/1oTiGjT #yalit
Veronica Roth: YA Novels Aren’t Frivolous Teen Fiction | Neon Tommy http://buff.ly/1p6Lt4E #yalit
The Guardian has shared a video celebrating the 25th anniversary of the beloved We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. In the video, the two sit down and discuss the origins of the story and the impact of the art work.
The Fox and the Crow by Manasi Subramaniam, illustrated by Culpeo S. Fox
A new version of a classic Aesop fable, this picture book explores the tale of Fox and Crow. Crow is all set to perch with his fellows on a wire but then smells the bread cooling in a window below. Down he swoops and heads into the woods with it. But Fox is there too, sneaking along. Fox howls, singing beneath Crow. Crow must respond in song, opens his mouth and down falls the bread into Fox’s waiting mouth below. It’s a tale we all know, but told in such a masterful way that it is made new again.
Subramaniam’s text adds to the drama of this short tale. This is writing with lushness and body, using words that will stretch young children in just the right way. Words like raucous, wafting, twilight and temptress fill the story and enrich it. They cleverly play up the darkness, the wildness and the tricks that are being played.
Fox’s illustrations are just as rich and dark. Each illustration is a painting that stands on its own in composition and beauty. Fox uses spatters to add texture to his deep color palette that evokes the encroaching twilight and evening. On some pages the colors of the sunset enter, adding more drama.
A reinvention of an old tale, this is an incredible new telling. Appropriate for ages 4-7.
Reviewed from library copy.
Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust by Loic Dauvillier, illustrated by Marc Lizano and Greg Salsedo
Translated from French, this graphic novel delicately but powerfully explains the impact of the Nazis on a child. Told by a grandmother to her granddaughter, this is the story of Dounia, a young Jewish girl whose life changes when the Nazis come to Paris. First she has to wear a yellow star, then she stops attending school, and finally her parents are taken away and she is sheltered by neighbors. She has to call the neighbor woman “mother” even though she doesn’t want to. The two flee Paris and head to the countryside where Dounia is able to live comfortably with enough food, but worries all the time about whether she will ever see her parents again. This is a book about families but also about those people thrown together by horrors who become family to one another to survive.
Dauvallier first offers a glimpse of what Dounia’s life was like just before the Nazis arrived. Quickly though, the book changes and becomes about persecution and the speed of the changes that Jews in France and other countries had to endure. Isolation from society was one of the first steps taken, the loss of friends and mentors, then the fear of being taken away or shot entered. But so did bravery and sacrifice and heroism. It is there that this book stays, keeping the horrors at bay just enough for the light to shine in.
The art work is powerful but also child friendly. The characters have large round heads that show emotions clearly. There are wonderful plays of light and dark throughout the book that also speak to the power of the Nazis and the vital power of fighting back in big ways and small.
A powerful graphic novel, this book personalizes the Holocaust and offers the story of one girl who survived with love and heroism. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Reviewed from copy received from First Second.
Tap Tap Boom Boom by Elizabeth Bluemle, illustrated by G. Brian Karas
Join a group of city kids as a thunderstorm bursts overhead. It starts with just a “tap tap” of rain and the umbrellas come out. Then a “boom boom” enters and a “crackle” of lightning too. Puddles form and the wind swells. So the children head down into the subway to get underground. Lots of people gather and shelter in the subway, including some very wet dogs that shake themselves dry on everyone. People stop, talk with one another, share umbrellas. Then the storm ends and there is a gorgeous surprise in the sky.
Bluemle offers a jaunty rhythm in her poem that also has rhymes that work well. She captures the unexpected nature of a summer storm and combines it with the camaraderie that forms when people shelter together. This is a very positive book, one that has all different sorts of people put together in one large urban community.
Karas’ illustrations are done in his signature style. His pictures are a mix of drawings, paintings and photographs. The combination creates a slick urban feel with added warmth from his very personable characters who fill up the space.
A great choice for thundery spring weather, this picture book celebrates storms. Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Reviewed from library copy.
Waking Brain Cells 