Annie Cardi's Blog, page 68
October 25, 2012
To Pin a Mockingbird
This fall, I want to incorporate more pins into my wardrobe. This To Kill a Mockingbird-inspired pin looks like just the ticket:
If Harper Lee isn’t your style, House of Ismay has lots of other literary brooches and items available for you to peruse.
(via Book Riot)
October 24, 2012
Links Galore
A few more fun links for the day:
Fellow 2014 debut author Livia Blackburne talks about what makes a good kissing scene.
This list of literary fiction tropes is pretty much all of my literary fiction pet peeves.
What a beautiful book sculpture!
Think an editor’s day is all reading and sighing over how great books are? Think again.
So…why do we have an electoral college? (via the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance)
Pullman Gets Grimm
Philip Pullman + fairy tales + gorgeous art and animation?
So much yes.
Can’t wait to pick up his new book. If you can’t wait, check out Pullman’s thoughts on the Grimms and fairy tales here.
(via bookshelves of doom)
October 23, 2012
Golden Boy is Coming!
One reason I love children’s literature is that it introduces kids to very real problems in the world, many of which are far from readers’ everyday experiences. Rich, compelling characters can deeply connect a reader with global problems and injustices.
So I’m thrilled that Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan is about to hit the shelves in Spring 2013. Tara is a friend and critique group member, so I can totally vouch for the book’s awesomeness. The synopsis:
“A shocking human rights tragedy brought to light in a story of heartbreak and triumph.
Thirteen-year-old Habo has always been different— light eyes, yellow hair and white skin. Not the good brown skin his family has and not the white skin of tourists. Habo is strange and alone. His father, unable to accept Habo, abandons the family; his mother can scarcely look at him. His brothers are cruel and the other children never invite him to play. Only his sister Asu loves him well. But even Asu can’t take the sting away when the family is forced from their small Tanzanian village, and Habo knows he is to blame.
Seeking refuge in Mwanza, Habo and his family journey across the Serengeti. His aunt is glad to open her home until she sees Habo for the first time, and then she is only afraid. Suddenly, Habo has a new word for himself: Albino. But they hunt Albinos in Mwanza because Albino body parts are thought to bring good luck. And soon Habo is being hunted by a fearsome man with a machete. To survive, Habo must not only run but find a way to love and accept himself.”
This book makes me wish I had a middle school class so I could share the story with them. So good, guys.
If you’re intrigued, head over to IceyBooks for Golden Boy’s cover reveal and your chance to win an ARC!
October 22, 2012
Links Galore
A few more cool links for today:
A blog about handling the finance side of your writing career. I know I’m an adult because I saw this and thought “Oh yeah!”
Name-dropping, your rescue dog, and other acknowledgment hilarity.
Literary costumes are the coolest.
Cornelia Funke on fairy tales.
And you thought your book contract was confusing.
Excellent post on book illustration and how it functions vs. non-narrative art.
It’s a Book, and Other Ways to Look at the Genre Question
Jaclyn Moriarty wrote one of my favorite YA novels, Feeling Sorry for Celia. I read it when I was in high school and loved the honest look at how friendships change, paired with a hilarious and sharp voice.
Now she has a new book coming out and, during the writing and publishing process, grappled with the category. She’d initially envisioned it as a children’s book. When that wasn’t working, she wrote it as a YA novel. But her publishers read it and thought it might actually be a better fit in the adult section. Moriarty was worried that it wouldn’t end up appealing to adult readers and wouldn’t be available to teen readers. I like her publishers’ response:
“In the end my publishers said: Why does it have to be one thing or another? An adult book, a teen book, a cross-over book?’
‘It’s a book,’ they said. ‘We’ll publish it as a book.’”
Although I’m a huge supporter of YA as a genre and connecting teen readers with books that will resonate with their life experiences, I really like the simplicity of “It’s a book.” While it would be great to think that all readers approach books with an open mind, it’s easy to set up barriers for yourself. When Walt suggested we watch Battlestar Galactica, I balked. “I don’t like sci-fi,” I said. Except I ended up loving BSG and Doctor Who and lots of other sci-fi programs. I think a lot of people have the same reaction to YA and end up missing out on a lot of fantastic books.
But even with the support of her publisher, Moriarty still had to deal with the question of why she was writing outside of her genre. I’ve talked about this kind of thing with other YA writers, and the idea that you can only write stories as a YA author/fantasy writer/romance novelist is tough. Lots of times your ideas flow into the same category, but that’s not always the case. (Look at Lois Lowry’s bibliography to get a sense of what range an author can have.) There’s a lot of pressure to establish your voice/brand as an author, which largely means writing similar kinds of books. But are we limiting authors and readers by focusing so much on which category a book should fit into?
With more adult readers branching into YA, hopefully this won’t be too much of an issue in years to come. For now, I hope we can all encourage each other to look at books of all categories and genres as just that–books.
Make sure to check out the whole article about Moriarty’s latest book and the question of genre.
October 19, 2012
Friday Fifteen
I feel like it’s been two weeks since our last Friday. High time for another Friday Fifteen!
1. A Brief History of Montmaray by Michelle Cooper
Royals on a nearly empty island on the edge of WWII. SO MUCH YES.
2. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
A road trip novel with a dead body. Faulkner’s pretty cool, guys.
3. Make and Do (Childcraft: the How and Why Library #11) by World Book-Childcraft International
Probably my favorite in the series. Made puppet shows, shoe box trains, and Halloween costumes.
4. The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV by Stan and Jan Berenstain
This was not a concern in our household.
5. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
First book I remember reading that dealt with the Holocaust. Sensitive take for young readers.
Underground Poetry
You can find poetry anywhere, even in ads on the subway.
Check out Subway Cento for more subway ad poems.
My other favorite subway-related-poetry thing is Poems on the Underground.
(image: Jack Cheng)(via Design Mom)
October 18, 2012
Links Galore
A few more links for today:
Shannon Hale and her fans prove that boys can and do read “girl books.”
Why ban books when you can ban dementors?
I don’t necessarily agree that stories can only exist on paper, but I love Harper Lee’s letter on the importance of books in a community. (Also she uses “much love,” which is a favorite sign-off of mine, which must mean than Lee and I should be friends.)
Super heart-warming story about a teen and his bookstore.
Thanks to YA Fusion for my brand-new copy of Getting Somewhere by Beth Neff! Can’t wait to dive into the YA contemporary goodness.
Margaret Atwood writes amazing dystopian novels and enjoys a good scotch, which must mean that she and I should be friends, too.
