Brunching During the Olympics

Welcome to another Sunday Brunch at Collecting Children’s Books -- a weekly random round-up of fact and opinion on books for kids.


SPRING FASHIONS

It’s been about a month since the announcement of the 2010 Newbery and Caldecott Medals. As always happens, the winning titles and Honor Books almost immediately disappeared from bookstore shelves. If you tried to order them from Amazon.com you were told they were “temporarily out of stock.” That’s because all the books were back in press, being reprinted to fill the demand.

Now that a few weeks have passed, these additional printings are finally appearing in bookstores. If you haven’t been able to get your hand on these books, they are now readily available -- decked out with their new gold and silver stickers.

In the world of fashion, the preferred styles and colors change from year to year.

But in the world of children’s books, gold and silver are always the best colors for early spring.


OLYMPIC FEVER

Avidly watching the Olympics all week, I’ve been wondering if this event had increased interest in winter sports among kids. At least one publisher, Crabtree, foresaw a need for such books and, just in time for the games, issued a series titled “Winter Olympic Sports.” Individual volumes include:

ICE HOCKEY AND CURLING by Robin Johnson
SNOWBOARD by Joseph Alan Gustaitis
ALPINE AND FREESTYLE SKIING by Kylie Burns
SPEED SKATING by Joseph Alan Gustaitis
BOBSLED, LUGE, AND SKELETON by Robin Johnson

And here are some fictional titles -- old and new -- that revolve around sports featured in the Winter Games:

Snowboarding

THE CASE OF THE SNOWBOARDING SUPERSTAR by James Preller (2006)
GIANTS DON’T GO SNOWBOARDING by Debbie Dadey and Marcia T. Jones (1998)
FIRST TRACKS by Johnny Boyd and Jeff Teaford (2008)
SNOWBOARDING ON MONSTER MOUNTAIN by Eve Bunting (2003)
SNOWBOARD CHAMP by Matt Christopher (2004)
SNOWBOARD SHOWDOWN by Matt Christopher (1999)
SNOWBOARD MAVERICK by Matt Christopher (1997)

Skiing

SKI PUP by Don Freeman (1963)
THE HAPPY SKI ABC by Lisl Weil (1964)
FLYING SKIS by Josephine Wunsch (1962)
ANGEL ON SKIS by Betty Cavanna (1957)
SNOWSHOE THOMPSON by Nancy Smiler Levinson (1992)
WHEN THE MOUNTAIN SINGS by John MacLean (1992)
CROSS-COUNTRY CAT by Mary Calhoun (1979)
NORTH OF DANGER by Dale Fife (1978)

Skating

DONUTHEART by Sue Stauffacher (2006)
FROZEN RODEO by Catherine Clark (2003)
SOPHIE SKATES by Rachel Isadora (1999)
THE SKATES OF UNCLE RICHARD by Carol Fenner (1978)
A VERY YOUNG SKATER by Jill Krementz (1979)
COLD AS ICE by Elizabeth Levy (1988)
THIN ICE by Marc Talbert (1986)
HANS BRINKER, OR, THE SILVER SKATES by Mary Mapes Dodge (1865)
A DAY ON SKATES by Hilda Van Stockum (1934)

Finally, here are some books by or about some of the current athletes competing in this year’s Games:

SASHA COHEN : FIRE ON ICE by Sasha Cohen, Amanda Maciel, and Kathy Goedeken (2005)
EXTREME SNOWBOARDING WITH LINDSEY JACOBELLIS by Claire O’Neal (2008)
SHAUN WHITE by Matt Doeden (2006)
A JOURNEY : THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF APOLO ANTON OHNO by Apolo Anton Ohno with Nancy Ann Richardson (2002)

I was going to end this section with a sarcastic comment about there being no good novels about the sport of curling...but then I had this vague recollection of reading a young adult novel in which the protagonist went curling with members of his girlfriend’s family.... Was this a book by Chris Crutcher? Does anyone remember...?


R.I.P J.D.

The recent death of J.D. Salinger has gotten me thinking about his role in young adult literature.

It’s hard to believe that when THE CATCHER IN THE RYE was published it was, despite its teenaged protagonist, considered a fairly adult book and was attacked frequently by censors.

Now it’s considered a young-adult classic.

If CATCHER were written today, would it have been published as an adult book or a YA novel?

Some years back, the late British critic David Rees said of Paul Zindel: “Zindel’s writing reflect the American adult’s generalized view of the all-American teenager: edgy, fluent, certainly uninhibited, and ‘with it.’ But the voice lacks individuality. It is the same voice that occurs in many -- perhaps too many -- contemporary American authors, the voice of Holden Caufield. The influence of Salinger on the present generation of American writers for children seems profound, all-pervasive. Maybe English readers miss subtlety and nuance, just as Americans may miss the differences in style that seem obvious to the English among, say, Rosemary Sutcliff and Lucy Boston and Philippa Pearce (all very English novelists.)”

Hmm.

I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing with Mr. Rees statement. (No wonder I’m a Libra.)

I do think echoes of Holden Caufield’s voice can be heard in many YA novels, but I’m not sure that anyone is intentionally following in Salinger’s footsteps. I’m more inclined to think that Salinger was one of the first writers to identify that edgey teenage voice in the modern American zeitgeist, and that other authors happened to find it as well.

I also suspect that Mr. Rees does miss “subtlety and nuance” in these American voices -- nuance that born-and-bred Americans definitely notice in the voice of the widely-varied first-person narrators in current fiction.


SALINGER THE WIMPY KID

My bookstore friend just gave me a copy of the new (February 15) issue of Publishers Weekly -- the spring book issue.

In addition to the listings of all the new spring titles (so many intriguing books! When will I have time to read them?) this issue contains a piece by Charles Kochman, executive editor of Abrams ComicsArts, in which he discusses his admiration for J.D. Salinger.

When I read Frank Portman’s YA novel KING DORK a couple years back, I immediately noticed that the dustjacket design was a riff on the ubiquitous Bantam paperback cover of Salinger’s THE CATCHER IN THE RYE.


What I didn’t know, until I read Mr. Kochman’s article, is that the cover of DIARY OF A WIMPY KID is supposed to honor Salinger as well. The editor says: “When we designed the cover of the first Diary of a Wimpy Kid book in 2007, the color was chosen to evoke the Bantam paperback edition of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. Its maroon background and yellow type was a subliminal signal that the linage of Greg Heffley could be found in Holden Caulfield: Greg doesn’t like being bullied or picked on, but he bullies and picks on his best friend Manny. He doesn’t like his brother Rodrick for being manipulative, but unlike his calculating brother, Greg manipulates without realizing he’s doing it. He’s Holden;’s blood brother in phoniness. Their stories are both told in first-person, and their voices articulate the same dissatisfaction of adolescence. <...> No eight-year-old reader was ever supposed to make the connection. I doubt Jeff was even conscious of the comparison when he wrote it. But it’s all part of the DNA of his story, a quality and a tone shared by just about everything written on the subject of adolescence published after Salinger cast his antihero out onto the cold streets of a New York winter in 1951.”

Yeah, I can guarantee that no eight-year-old made the connection.

But now I’m curious if anyone else did either. Did any reviewers or bloggers see a bit of Salinger in Wimpy Kid?

Did anyone notice the similar copies.

I must admit that I didn’t.


SOMETHING ELSE I MISSED

Some time between the National Book and Newbery Day (hey, isn’t that how we all tell time?) I tried to write a piece pointing out some of the issues I was having with the book CLAUDETTE COLVIN by Phillip Hoose. I edged around the topic and (I’ll admit it) failed pretty badly at really figuring out ALL the problems. Thankfully, Colleen Mondor of the Chasing Ray website found just the right words and has written a wonderfully insightful blog about the book. Please check it out.


WHAT MAKES A BOOK FOR YOUNG PEOPLE?

I’m still working on my Pulitzer Prize project, reading all the books that have won the Pulitzer for fiction. Right now I’m enmeshed in John Updike’s “Rabbit” books (two of which won the Pulitzer) as well as the mammoth volume, THE STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER.

Literary qualities aside, I come away from these books thinking: “Affairs, adultery, death, crumbling marriages, affairs, adultery, death....”

Is this what adult books are all about???

After having read a good number of the Pulitzer winners, it does seem that way.

One unhappy marriage after another, yet another affair, another death...they all seem the same.

To misquote David Rees, maybe I’m just missing the "subtlety and nuance" between the similar themes these novels.

But they just seem so sad. So cynical. Everyone unhappy. Everyone dying.

Whenever I think about the main quality that separates adult books from children’s books, I think about an anecdote involving one of my friends.

Many years ago, when my friend’s daughter was just three or four years old, an older friend of the family died of cancer. She had been ill for several months and eventually died quietly in her sleep. That evening, as my friend put her daughter to bed, the little girl began asking questions about death. What happens when people die? Why did Miss Lib die? My friend said, “People die when they get really, really, really old or really, really, really sick>”

Then her daughter asked the inevitable question: “Do kids ever die?”

My friend replied, “Not unless they are really, really, really, really sick.”

Her daughter persisted, "Do kids ever die in their sleep?"

"Not unless they are really, really, really, REALLY sick," said my friend.

She finally got her daughter settled in bed and went to bed herself. But she was worried that the little girl wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, or would get up scared in the middle of the night.

However, her daughter did end up sleeping all that night. The next morning my friend woke up and, as she lay in bed, she could hear her daughter rousing in the next room: a mumble, a cough, the bed springs squeaking as the little girl sat up in bed. Then all of a sudden she heard her daughter say outloud, with great wonder: “Yay! I’m alive!”

I’ve often thought of that anecdote as a good example of how children’s books differ from adult books. The latter can be so dark and cynical, with a focus on unhappiness and death. Of course children’s books can and do focus on unhappiness and even death (every book needs conflict) yet the perspective often strikes me as very different...with the characters in the adult books dying by inches -- physically and emotionally -- while the characters in children’s books have resilience and a gift for survival. No matter how bad things get in children’s books, the protagonists nearly always look at the world with a sense of wonder and, although they may not say it, we get the feeling they are always thinking: “Yay! I’m alive!”

Thanks for visiting Collecting Children’s Books. Hope you’ll be back!

The Mind-Controlled Author

She was a fascinating person.

Due to her job, she had lived all over the world. She was intellectually curious -- teaching herself to read several foreign languages and to play intricate classical pieces on the piano. All her friends and family would attest that she was generous to a fault.

Then, a few years ago, she suddenly began to hear voices.

First she claimed they were sending her messages through the television and radio, but later said "the voices" were transmitted directly into her head. They also tormented her by shooting painful "electronic rays" all over her body, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. She said she was a victim of a government "mind control" experiment.

Her behavior became increasingly aberrant. At one point she fled the country without telling anyone, in hopes that she'd leave "the voices" behind. She returned home several days later, sadly admitting that the voices had followed her. She took to visiting lawyers' offices, trying to enlist their help in fighting the government; they'd usher her out, barely suppressing their smiles. It was especially bad for those of us who knew her. She would talk for hours about her plight. She was so convincing that, after a while, you'd think, "Well...she did work for the government all her life...could it possibly be true...?" But then you'd shake your head and say, "Of course it's not true!" When she saw your disbelief, she'd say in disgust, "Someday you'll find out the truth. It may not be in my lifetime, but someday the truth will come out -- and then you'll be sorry you never believed me!"

After she died, we found hundreds of legal pads containing rough drafts of demented letters she'd written to every member of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and even the President of the United States, demanding that they look into the "mind control experiments" that had made the last two decades of her life a living nightmare.

Of course she wasn't the only one who suffered from this delusion. I've come to realize it's common. Someone once came into the library where I worked and asked for information on cathode ray tubes. As I led him to the science stacks, I stuttered-stepped as he added, "The government is using cathode rays to monitor my behavior." If you listen to late night radio, you'll often hear people phone in and say they're being persecuted by the government, or under the control of the CIA, or hearing voices in their heads. These calls are usually quickly scuttled by the host.

I've been thinking about my old acquaintance -- as well as all the other people like her -- this week, after hearing about a woman named Candy Jones.

Candy Jones (1925-1990) was a well-known model throughout the forties and fifties. In 1972, she married a New York radio host named Long John Nebel. Long John's overnight show focused on the paranormal and conspiracy theories, much like his latter-day counterparts Art Bell and George Noory do today. Upon getting married, Candy joined Long John's show as a co-host and began to enthrall his audience with her own story of being a "mind control" victim. Her tale -- patched together from both partial memories and hypnotic regressions -- is full of intrigue, torture, and mystery. Some called it a hoax, but author Donald Bain took it seriously enough to write a book about it (THE CONTROL OF CANDY JONES, 1976) and Carla Emery's 1998 volume, SECRET, DON'T TELL : THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HYPNOTISM, devotes many pages to Candy's story.

Of course when I learned about Candy Jones, I immediately thought of the Cathode Ray Guy in the Library and my tormented acquaintance who wasted her last years writing hundreds of letters to the government about "the voices."

You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with children's books.

Well, when I was researching Candy Jones this week, I discovered that during the sixties, she wrote several young adult books about modeling and fashion. Published by Harper, her YA titles included LET'S MAKE FACES, JUST FOR TEENS, and MORE THAN BEAUTY. I've never seen any of these books, but I'm especially intrigued by her 1962 volume TIME TO GROW UP : AN AFFECTIONATE GUIDE FOR YOUNG LADIES FROM TEN TO SIXTEEN, which contains advice on etiquette and comportment for girls.

I guess I'd like to read these books just to see if any of her later "strangeness" lurks subtly within the sentences or creeps around the edge of the pages.

One thing I learned from having a personal relationship with someone who had a very similar delusion is that it eventually colors all your thoughts and memories of that person. I remember the years before my acquaintance became strange and obsessed. I remember her sending letters from exotic places such as Turkey and the Philippines. I remember books that she shared with me. I remember things she'd say and do. But now when I remember those things, I am looking for signs of incipient strangeness in her words and actions. Surely it had to be there all along.

It had to be.

Because I hate to think of the alternative: that smart, kind people like my personal acquaintance or worldly authors such as Candy Jones could live productive, fulfilling lives for many years and then -- snap! -- suddenly become obsessed with a batty belief that torments them for the rest of their years.

I don't want to believe that could happen.

Because if that could happen to them, it could happen to anyone, including you and me.

A Valentine's Brunch

Welcome to Sunday Brunch at Collecting Children’s Books. Today’s random assortment of fact and opinion talks about books that were written as Valentine presents, reviews the new Jennifer L. Holm novel, and notes an increase in reading among young people.


VALENTINE’S TREATS

Forget about hearts and flowers. The best thing about Valentine’s Day is the candy.

In honor of the day, here are some timely dustjackets from a few recent young adult novels.


Oh great, now I’m hungry.


EVEN BETTER THAN A BOX OF CANDY?

One of the novels above, BOY MEETS BOY, began as a Valentine’s gift. Actually, several of the author’s books started off as Valentine’s presents.

Back when he was in high school, David Levithan spent a boring class period looking for love...in a physics textbook. He gave the resulting short story, “A Romantic Inclination,” to several friends as a Valentine’s present, beginning an annual tradition that continues to this day.

BOY MEETS BOY grew out of a Valentine’s story, as did several of the tales in HOW THEY MET AND OTHER STORIES.

Coming in April is a collaboration between Mr. Levithan and John Green, author WAITING FOR ALASKA and PAPER TOWNS.

It’s called WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON and I just began reading it yesterday.


I may be the only person out there who buys advance reading copies of forthcoming books because:

a) I’m impatient and can’t wait for the hardcover
b) I want to look as though I’m up on all the latest discoveries and not a Johnny-come-lately
c) I’m not enough of an insider to get them free
d) All of the above


TURTLE IN PARADISE

Actually, I did get the following book free -- and I’m so glad I did. A friend gave me an ARC a couple weeks ago and this past Wednesday, off work for a snow day, I spent the morning “in Florida” with this novel.

In TURTLE IN PARADISE, Jennifer L. Holm again creates a story based on her own family history (after OUR OWN AMELIA JANE and PENNY FROM HEAVEN), this time inspired by a great-grandmother who grew up in the Florida Keys at the end of the nineteenth century. Holm transfers her story to the Depression era, as prickly eleven-year-old Turtle is sent to live with relatives in 1935 Key West. As she adjusts to her new surroundings, Turtle hangs out with an all-boy gang of babysitters called the Diaper Gang, meets relatives she never knew existed, such as her stroke-afflicted grandmother, and searches for pirate treasure during the Keys’ perilous Labor Day Hurricane.


The treasure-hunting plot strains credibility, but Holm caps it with a realistic twist that results in a conclusion that Turtle admits “may not be a Hollywood ending,” yet still satisfies. Written in smooth, fast-paced prose, TURTLE IN PARADISE is especially strong in capturing an exotic location -- complete with sponge-fishing, conch-chowder, and “Papa” Hemingway down at the local cafe -- and a long-ago time of Terry and the Pirates in the funnies and Shirley Temple on the movie screen. An Author’s Note sets event in perspective and a bibliography and list of websites provide sources of additional information for readers captivated by this extremely likable novel.


TURTLES IN LITERATURE

The protagonist of TURTLE IN PARADISE got her name due to her “hard shell,” but she’s not the first girl named Turtle in fiction. There’s also the heroine of Ellen Raskin’s Newbery-winning THE WESTING GAME, as well as a character in Barbara Kingsolver’s novel THE BEAN TREES, which was published for adults, but appears frequently on high school reading lists.


BO JO AGAIN

In last week’s blog I mentioned that popular teen marriage book of the seventies, MR. AND MRS. BO JO JONES by Ann Head, and several people wrote to comment, making me even more anxious to read this novel. Wendy calls it “a truly beautiful book.” Another correspondent told the following tale. (I’m changing the names to protect the innocent. Especially the kid with the reactionary mother.)

I haven't thought of that book in a hundred years. The copy that
circulated in my middle school was so dog-eared at the sex scene, that
the book just fell open to that spot. (And by circulated I don't mean
in the library. Judy Hendricks gave it to Anita Kurt who gave it to Rocky
Mead who gave it to Becca Mallet who gave it to Sam Johnson who gave
it to Felicia McMehan who gave it to Mary Moon who gave it to me who gave it to Clara Bigby who showed it to her mother who took it away.

I took our copy from the shelf at the library but, unfortunately, it didn’t fall open to any particular page.

Guess I’ll have to read the whole thing.


WHEN YOU REACH ME...BRING A FLASHLIGHT

I got another fun note from a bookseller this week. She talked about attending a recent bookstore signing for Rebecca Stead and said:

She showed up at the signing to a darkened bookstore. The store had lost its electricity about 30 minutes earlier. The electricity was out for 90 minutes. A bookseller held a flashlight up while she read to the audience. The store had a few lights that worked on a generator and she could see someone when their hand went up to ask a question. The electricity came back on around the time that it was time to sign the books.

About 50-75 people showed up during a storm forecast for that night and with no electricity. Rebecca Stead said that at least it made it an interesting signing. The store and Rebecca Stead were joking that it was like a sleep over.

What was really interesting was the audience. There were many librarians which made sense but there were also quite a few mothers and daughters and it was delightful to see them enjoy a book and an author together.

Great, but where were the fathers and sons? WHEN YOU REACH ME seems to be one of those books which, despite its female narrator, appeals equally to boys.

Still, it sounds like a memorable booksigning event.

Wish I’d been there -- with candles and a flashlight!


TWO MINUTES

A new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that reading is on the increase among young people.

According to the report, “average daily media use” by kids between eight an eighteen was “seven hour and 38 minutes in 2009, up from six hours and 21 minutes in 2004.”

Also, “on average, 8-18 year-olds spent 25 minute per day reading books in 2009, up from 23 minutes in 2004 and 21 minutes in 1999.”

I’m glad the number of minutes is going up.

I’m glad kids are reading books at all!

....Though if the number is only increasing by two minutes a day every five years, we’ll be well into the twenty-second century before kids read books an hour a day.

Oh well, we can only dream.

Thanks for visiting Collecting Children’s Books. Hope you’ll be back. Have a Happy Valentine’s Day. ...Oh, and speaking of sweet treats AND turtles, my current favorite treat is called a Turtle Sundae. It contains vanilla ice cream with both hot fudge and hot caramel drizzled on top, along with a sprinkling of pecans. They call it a Turtle Sundae because the flavor is reminiscent of the candy known as “Turtles.” I’ve noticed recently that some ice cream shops have changed the name from “Turtle Sundae” to “Pecan Cluster Sundae.” I thought maybe the Turtle candy company had complained about trademark infringement, but I asked the counter girl and she said they changed the name because it "confused people."

Oh come on, did anyone REALLY think they were ordering a sundae made from actual turtles?


Though, come to think of it, both pecans and turtles do come in shells....