Teen Fiction

Posted by Laura L. Johnson

As a final word on this topic, I want to go back to picture books. When you think of children's literature, you may think of Alice in Wonderland or Tuck Everlasting, but I want you to go even further back. Remember some of your favorite picture books. If You GIve A Mouse A Cookie often tops people's lists. What can you remember about these books? One of my favorites, for example, was a book called Bert and the Broken Tea Pot. In this book, Bert is working for Mr. Hooper, when he accidentally breaks one of his favorite tea pots. Bert then faces the dilemma of either sweeping up the teapot and hoping he doesn't notice, or telling him.

No surprise ending here - Bert does the right thing and Mr. Hooper assures him that telling the truth is always better. So why did I ask you to remember you favorite children's picture book? More than likely, your favorite also contained a life lesson - and it seems to me like these life lessons should be read by adults again - especially those in politics.

Think of hte latest news stories. Maybe as adults we do need to be reminded that it is better to come clean and be honest than to "sweep something under the rug." But most adults will never be reminding of those books. Most would never set foot in the children's section for their own enjoyment - but who says we don't all need a little reminder now and then and the basics in life. Head to your library soon and peruse those picture books - see what you can't learn.

Posted by Laura L. Johnson

As I perused my local library's categories the other day, I was more struck than anything at how many books I found in the children's section that I have read recently, or would gladly read again and fully enjoy. I think as adults and teens, we sometimes go to our respective library sections, like we're not allowed anywhere else, and forget that great literature awaits us everywhere.

Take, for instance, a more recent children's book, published in 2004, Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. This backstory to Peter Pan is directed at children - it was even published by Hyperion's children's division. However, it is on the reading list in my 9th and 10th grade English classroom. It is also one of my favorite reads so far this summer. If not for the fact that my students recommend books to me, I never would have enjoyed this experience.

Think also of the children's classics. Who among us, teenager or adult, wouldn't benefit from re-reading Charlotte's Web, Anne of Green Gables, or even The Giving Tree. Contained in these books are values and ideas that shaped us into the people we are today, but also sparked our imaginations and allowed us to first visit other worlds with other people.

I understand there needs to be some division - you don't want eight-year olds picking up a Stephen King novel and reading it. However, it is up to each of us to remember not to stick to our own little section of the library, but to go back to our reading roots and remind ourselves of why we love reading so much in the first place.

Posted by Laura L. Johnson

A few days ago I was asked what my favorite book of all time was - what an impossible question! I sat back and thought about it, and immediately my mind said "okay, you have to break this down into categories. So I started thinking about my favorite books I read as a child. My mind went to Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree or Where the Sidewalk Ends, E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, or Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew series. But then I stopped - what is the classification of those last two? I read them as a kid, but certainly teens could read them and be entertained. So I moved on to teen fiction. Growing up I loved the tragedy of Lurlene McDaniel's fiction, but I also spent most of my young adult years reading "classic literature." In junior high I read Pride and Prejudice and Mark Twain. And what about Anne of Green Gables? I enjoy them as much now as I did when I was 8!

This thought process got me thinking - can we even draw genre lines across fiction? As a high school English teacher, I read a great deal of what my student's read - Haddix, Westerfeld, Meyers, etc. - and I enjoy it! I also enjoyed reading Mary Higgins Clark and Tom Clancy throughout my high school years, and certainly those are always classified as adult fiction.

Though I clearly see the necessity of cateogirzing a library in such divisions, as it makes it easier for patrons to find books, I wonder if we end up missing out on great fiction and great adventures, simply because we never think to look in another section of the library.

Posted by Laura L. Johnson

According to IMDB, here are a few of the movies slated to be released in the next 3 years:

• Stargirl
• Uglies
• A Great and Terrible Beauty
• Twilight

Certainly, this is good news for the genre, and the authors. Many people who have not even heard of these books will go out and see the movies. Perhaps they will then discover the story first flourished in book form and decide to rush to their local bookstore, or, better yet, local library, and pick up a copy, to discover for themselves the magic of these worlds.

But what about the stories. Does it really matter how the ideas and plot lines of these authors get out, as long as they are being heard? I would argue yes. The authors do not write the screenplays. While most are consulted in the process, it is still not their vision - not their precise building of a scene. And no, dropping poignant quotations from the book does not make the author's intended message more clear, it just makes it more trite, and less meaningless when not in context.

So what can we do about this? Not much, I'm afraid. In fact, even as you are reading this and may find yourself nodding in agreeance, you still, somewhere deep in side probably may be saying "I think i want to see that one, though!" I'll probably give in and go see them too - these stories have touched and changed my life. I can find. So even though i feel like I'm "giving in," I find solace in the fact that, at the end of the day, I'm still going to run to my local library the day they get a new adventure, and fall in love all over again with words - not CGI animation.

Posted by Laura L. Johnson

In early 2008, Francine Pascal, author and creator of the Sweet Valley Series released the first two books in the popular Sweet Valley High series, but now with updated jargon and situations. The Wakefield twins now carry Blackberrys, have BFF's and hang out in internet cafes.

I'm personally a bit skeptical about this. I grew up with Elizabeth and Jessica, following them and their innocent pranks and their lessons learned, but never did I feel like they lived in my world. The world of the Wakefields was always unapologetically "perfect" and had neat, wrapped up endings, and that was okay. These new additions seem to try to make the series more like the lives of teens in 2008, and frankly, I think it destroys a bit of the magic of Sweet Valley.

It all goes back to the age-old question of "why do we read?" Some believe we read to learn more about the world around us and to experience through others experiences. Others believe we read to escape from the reality in which we live and to find adventure and live vicariously through others lives. I think I read for both reasons, but when it comes to Sweet Valley, I've never felt like I was being taught a lesson - I felt that I was being entertained. That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about these new additions. I suppose time will only tell how it affects the success of the series.

Posted by Laura L. Johnson

As I was writing my article, Teens Reading the Classics, I found myself in the midst of semi-hypocrisy. I looked down in my lap to find my current read: Scott Westerfeld's Pretties (the second in the Uglies series). As important (and entertaining) as I think the classics of literature are for teens to read - I know I dearly enjoyed reading Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway as a high schooler - I wonder if there is even any competition when they have shelves upon shelves of series written about their generation sitting at their fingertips.

I have nothing against the current YA fiction - like all genres in all times, there are good books and bad books. In fact, I am actually a big fan of the Westerfeld series, as well as the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. What concerns me is that the generations of teens who found themselves so bored on a summer day, they picked up their father's old copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is no longer around.

Perhaps we won't know until far into the future what affect this may have on teens. Sounds to me like a great sequel to Fahrenheit 451 to me...

Posted by Mechele R. Dillard

Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia by Brent Hartinger

Starscape, May 2007

Ages 9-12



Do you ever wonder where your dreams are formed? Are they bits and pieces of your actual experiences, maybe, just thrown together as you sleep? Or, perhaps, they are the part of your mind you don’t have the courage to access in your waking life? Or, really, could dreams be just harmless, random images popping around your brain as the remainder of your body rests? Author Brent Hartinger lets us in on his theory of dream generation with his first foray into the realm of fantasy, Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia.



Eleven-year-old Julie is having nightmares. It’s bad enough Julie’s waking life is a nightmare—her parents are constantly fighting, putting her right in the middle and pulling her in half as they try to destroy each other. Now, she is having nightmares so horrible, so graphic, she doesn’t even get a break from her daytime life when she sleeps. But, what can she do? She has no control over her dreams, right?



Wrong.



Hartinger explores the duality of personalities in the characters of Julie and Vivian, the actress who “plays” Julie in her dreams. His inventive storyline challenges friendships, questions the reality of reality, and investigates the truth of love—old, lost, and newly found. But, he does this on a level that kids and tweens can understand, in the context of a fantastic psychological thriller to which we can all relate: What if I could actually become a part of my dreams?



Dreamquest: Tales of Slumberia is an excellent entry into tweener thriller fantasy; Hartinger has another success on his hands!

Posted by Mechele R. Dillard

Beauty Shop for Rent by Laura Bowers. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2007.

Some people believe that life has been served to them on a paper plate and accept their fate without question; others, like Abbey Garner, know that determination and hard work can turn that plate from paper to silver, as long as one has a plan.

Of course, fourteen-year-old Abbey doesn’t know everything about having a plan in the real world. Things don’t always roll along as we expect. In spite of her long-absent mother’s claims, all men are not awaiting the opportunity to victimize women. Money is not the answer to every problem. Families come in all shapes and sizes. And, sometimes negative situations can actually be the jumping-off point of our happiness, if we’ll just keep an open mind. No, young Abbey is not aware of all of these things but, luckily, the wise women of Polly’s Parlor are.

Spending their days in this conversation-filled beauty shop in small-town America, the Gray Widows—Abbey’s feisty Granny Po and her colorful friends—and the new owner of Polly’s Parlor, Gena Hopkins, bring humor, wisdom, compassion and structure to Abbey’s life. Along the way she learns a few hard truths about the world, including the tough lesson that even though life is not always fair, the behavior of others is not an excuse for Abbey’s own actions. Eventually, she will have to grow up and look at the world and the people in it—even the people she thinks she loves and hates the most—for what and who they really are.

Author Laura Bowers sets this story among the ancient hairdryers and outdated styles of Polly’s Parlor, and uses generation gaps to great effect in this fresh, spirited tale of a young girl trying to find security in a world she doesn’t yet understand. Can money be the key to long-term safety and happiness? Or, will Abbey find that her plans must be altered to include the desires of the heart, as well?

Read the book and find out—I did, and I absolutely was not disappointed!

******************************************************************************************************************

For more information about author Laura Bowers, check out my interview with this Maryland author, wife, mother, and horsewoman, published right here in Teen Fiction at Suite101.com!

Posted by Mechele R. Dillard

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2007.

Vampires, werewolves, and shape-shifters, oh my! This gothic fantasy—the first by prolific author Cynthia Leitich Smith—has everything, including mystery, romance, thrills, and moments that will have the reader catching her breath with surprise, fear, suspense and, occasionally, risking a sigh of relief.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I began to read Tantalize (Candlewick Press, 2007). Bram Stoker? Anne Rice? Buffy? But, no, none of the above—the talented Smith supplies her own unique voice and gives her version of human vs. nonhuman—well, nonhuman, partially human, and undead human—a rich, passionate color of its own.

Sanguini’s: A Very Rare Restaurant is the hub of the action, serving menus for both “predator” (“chilled baby squirrels, simmered in orange brandy, bathed in honey cream sauce” (p. 173)) and “prey” (“roasted tomato and wild mushroom stew in red wine sauce and vegetable stock” (p. 172)). Werepeople, shape-shifters and, of course, vampires are everywhere during the nightly dinner rush, although only a few are the real thing. But, when people begin to die, it is imperative that seventeen-year-old restaurateur Quincie discover just who is who—or what.

Smith does an excellent job of drawing readers into the pages of her imagination. Every detail is precise and thorough, without becoming heavy-handed or causing the pace to drag. Smith offers just enough to keep her readers coming back for seconds, thirds, fourths …. And, when the last page is inevitably reached, one is left satisfied, yet hungering for more.

Smith is known for her contemporary multicultural writings, and I suppose Tantalize is about as “multicultural” as it gets. But her first foray into the goth aspect of fantasy is, without a doubt, a winner and, I hope, just a taste of courses yet to be served.

****************************************************************************************************************

For more about Cynthia Leitich Smith and Tantalize, check out my interview with her, right here on Teen Fiction at Suite101.com.

Enter curious!

Posted by Mechele R. Dillard

Mystery abounds in this intriguing fantasy from Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner Dia Calhoun!

Phoenix Dance loves nothing more than creating shoes. And, when she secures an apprenticeship with the Shoemaker to the Royal Household, she is sure her dreams are coming true. But, suddenly, the princesses begin destroying their shoes overnight, night after night and, eventually, a mystery begins to reveal itself: The shoes are not inferior; the princesses are simply dancing them to shreds each night. But, how?

The question of the princesses’ shoes is not the only mystery Phoenix Dance is trying to unravel, however. Phoenix suffers from the Illness of the Two Kingdoms: the Kingdom of Brilliance and the Kingdom of Darkness. She has peace for short periods of time, but much of her life is spent bouncing between the overwhelming rush of energy found in the Kingdom of Brilliance and the crushing despair of the Kingdom of Darkness. Why this happens—and how she can possibly find a balance between the two extremes—is a mystery Phoenix realizes she must solve in order to have any chance for happiness.

Phoenix Dance suffers from Bipolar II Disorder, as author Dia Calhoun explains in her Author’s Note. Calhoun herself deals with the same disorder, and had long been seeking a suitable vehicle to explain the highs and lows of the affliction when she reread “Twelve Dancing Princesses,” by the Brothers Grimm. “Surely princesses who danced so hard each night that they wore out their shoes were in a manic state, just like the people who have bipolar disorder?” (p. 272) Calhoun asked herself. And, The Phoenix Dance (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005) was conceived.

It is difficult to bring such a somber lesson to a novel, YAL or otherwise, much less do it in a compelling and entertaining fashion, but Calhoun does it well. As Phoenix struggles with her illness, slipping from one “kingdom” to the next, the reader cannot help but feel compassion, not only for Phoenix, but for those around the young apprentice.

So, does Phoenix find that balance she so desperately needs? Does she live her dream of making shoes? And, of course, does she finally discover how the princesses are dancing their shoes to destruction each night?

Read the book!

******************************************************************************************************************

To learn more about Dia Calhoun, read my interview with her right here on Teen Fiction at Suite101.com!