08.15.10
Posted in Favorite Books, Geography at 3:25 pm by Janet
Now that we’ve had a book discussion at the library about Will Grayson, Will Grayson, I can report on the reactions of some actual teen readers. First of all, this group of girls really liked the book. They definitely preferred Will Grayson to grumpy will grayson. They thought Jane was awesome. They liked Tiny but found him a little over the top. Some of them even said the book made them want to join their school’s Gay-Straight alliance.
Since the issue of geographical/Evanston/Chicagoland authenticity was stuck in my craw, I brought it up to the group. The kids told me that it was important to them that geographical details ring true–they make the book seem authentic and grounded. They said the Chicago stuff seemed real, for the most part. Some of them wanted to figure out if Frenchy’s really does exist and where exactly it is (!). Then I asked them about Evanston’s high school. They were all pretty much convinced that the events in the book could not have taken place at ETHS because it’s full of gangsters and thugs. Now, it should be stated that ETHS and their high school are rivals, and that as a result certain stereotypes about ETHS may exist in their minds. I have to take their comments with a grain of salt. I’m still waiting to hear from someone who actually did go to ETHS to get a second opinion on that one. Bottom line, geographical authenticity does matter to teen readers (at least on Chicago’s North Shore). Writers, keep doing your homework.
A last word: although ETHS’s mascot really is Willy the Wildkit, there are no murals at ETHS, the girls in my group reported. So here’s my virtual mural:
wildkits
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06.22.10
Posted in Favorite Books, Geography at 7:24 am by Janet
Even though I no longer have a crush on John Green, I read Will Grayson, Will Grayson as soon as I could get my hands on it. I loved it. I was particularly excited that the book is set in the Chicago area and that the Will Grayson parts of the story are set in my town, Evanston.
In library school and on various listservs, we spend a lot of time talking about the importance of authenticity in multicultural literature for children. What I hear over and over is that it is important to be sure you’re depicting a people from a particular culture or place fairly and accurately. But now I wonder…do you have to represent a town accurately? Does geographical authenticity matter?
Does Evanston’s high school really have lots of murals of its mascot? Does Jane’s house at 1712 Wesley exist and does it really have a porch? Am I being too obsessive? I mean, I live here and I don’t know. Then again, I’m not really the audience the author had in mind, given that I’m, you know, not a teenager. (I do know, however, that Will and Tiny and Jane drove home from the Hideout way quicker than is actually possible, at least when I’m driving. )
I’m still undecided (maybe you people out there can help me decide), but here’s how I’m leaning on this question. In this case, geographical authenticity matters when it shapes the story. It matters that Will Grayson and Tiny live in Evanston because it’s far away from will grayson, who I think is supposed to live over in the southwest suburb of Naperville. It also matters matters because Tiny and Will Grayson are Evanston rich kids, and will grayson is not a rich kid (although I’ve heard there are plenty of rich kids in Naperville). These are things that might pull the characters apart, but various events and strong feelings conspire to bring them together. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter because a story can be, well, just a story. The murals on the wall at ETHS don’t push the story forward, nor do they hold it back. Sometimes fiction is fiction, in that it’s made up, but it sure is neat when the details correspond with reality.
I’m hoping to give WGWG to a recent ETHS grad, and we’re also going to do a book discussion at my library (one suburb north) on it later this summer. Perhaps some of those teens can tell me if it is authentic, and whether or not it matters to them. I’ll get back to you on that.
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06.11.10
Posted in Favorite Books, Geography at 8:41 pm by Janet
Ooh, look what the cat dragged into the Tarts Wardrobe! It’s me, and tarts, I have not forgotten about you. I have just been very busy. Among other things, I’ve been on the road. Last month Lucianonymous and I drove down to New Orleans. New Orleans is like no other place I’ve been. Is it France? Is it the Caribbean? Is it the USA? All of the above? We mostly stayed around the French Quarter, but we did take a detour when we got lost coming back from Tulane. Business was booming in the French Quarter, but you could definitely still see the effects of Katrina–bad roads, boarded up houses. I narrowly avoided having a voodoo hex put on me when I skipped out of a mini lecture at the Voodoo Spiritual Temple to rescue L from standing interminably on the sidewalk. We wandered around a cemetery (the one in Easy Rider). We took a drive through the Garden District. The whole place was fascinating to me.
What am I getting at? After I got back I had to reread Ruined by Paula Morris. I read this book this winter, and it had me glued to the couch. The same thing happened the second time around, except that this time I had actually seen some of the places mentioned in the book and the story seemed so much more vivid. Anyhow, it’s about a New York teen named Rebecca who’s suddenly shipped off to New Orleans to live with an old family friend. An outsider in her very stodgy and traditional private school, Rebecca has to look elsewhere to find friends. She meets Lisette in the cemetery across the street from her house. Turns out Lisette is a ghost. Lisette introduces Rebecca to New Orleans’s history, with its complicated race relations and class structure. Rebecca soon finds out that New Orleans’s history is, well, not history at all. Lisette is connected to an old voodoo curse on the family of Rebecca’s snootiest schoolmate, and Rebecca herself may have a part to play in the curse. There’s a cute boy and a dramatic ending and lots of Mardi Gras beads. Morris does a does a great job of creating a sense of place and giving an overview of the history and culture of New Orleans. Plus it’s a riveting story.
So…if I can’t make it back for Mardi Gras, I’ll just read Ruined. You should read it, too.
Tomb of voodoo queen Marie Laveau
Commander's Palace, mentioned in the book
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02.28.10
Posted in Favorite Books at 9:02 pm by Janet
I wish I could say I could have identified with Allie, the heroine of Vinyl Princess, but let’s face it, I was never that cool. Allie works at Bob & Bob Records on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. She’s got a huge collection of vinyl, she’s a walking music encyclopedia, and she’s got the vinyl/music blog to prove it. She’s the sort of person I would have tried really hard to impress with my purchases once upon a time.
But Allie doesn’t feel as cool as she really is. She’s got an unrequited crush on a mysterious customer; her recently-split parents are developing their own, possibly sketchy, love lives; and she’s afraid to sign her anonymous blog. Plus Bob & Bob isn’t doing the business it used to, and stores on laid-back Telegraph Avenue is being targeted by armed robbers. Over the course of a summer, Allie tries to manage her love life, get used to her new family situation, keep the record store open, and own up to her coolness.
My favorite section reminds me of working in the library: Allie is helping a customer who doesn’t realize that the Frank Zappa records are under Z (duh). “Should I have taken him by the hand and led him over to the Zappa? No. I won’t spoon-feed the customers. If you don’t know your alphabet, you have no business leaving your house, let alone shopping for premium music.” I feel the same way sometimes (except that some of my patrons are, like, one, and I probably shouldn’t give them a hard time about not knowing the alphabet).
Check out the book’s website/Allie’s blog: http://www.thevinylprincess.com/
Somebody on the blog called this a High Fidelity for teens. I have to admit that High Fidelity is one of my favorite [adult] books, mostly because of its insights into the inscrutible minds of music guys. Note I say guys. Doesn’t matter if the book is about teens–this one’s for the geeky music ladies, who deserve their moment in the spotlight, too. Author Yvonne Prinz knows what she’s talking about. She founded this place: http://www.amoeba.com/
The one thing I didn’t like was the cover. Headphones? Smacks of the i-pod age. I feel like the designers could have done something more with, you know, actual records.
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07.28.09
Posted in Favorite Books at 1:02 pm by Bridget
I am the laziest of lazy bloggers and I try to post on my own blog now and then because otherwise people fear the worst, but I haven’t been over here in ages. Poor Janet, working Tarts’ all on her ownsies.
But I can’t let the season go by without sharing a couple of summer book recs.
As You Wish by Jackson Pearce comes out sometime in August and is a fabulous summer read — fun and romantic and light. There’s a hot jinn, three wishes, and all sorts of delicious conflict. Plus, it has one of those perfect endings where you close the book and feel totally satisfied.
The other book that I fell in love with recently was Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston. There’s lots of good stuff here like Shakespeare, cute guys in Central Park, power hungry faeries and the repercussions of old vendettas. There are scary parts, I have to warn you, but worth it for the romance and all the rest.
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