Monica Edinger's Blog, page 65

Young Adult/Adult in Contention: Green versus Ware at the Tournament of Books

My main problem with these books is their inherent juvenilia—one is a comic book, the other is designed for children.

Left to my own grown-up devices, I will always choose a novel that has a more adult sensibility. What is an adult sensibility, you ask? Like pornography, you’ll know it when you see it. So much of our culture has already been ceded to the grubby hands and blunted tastes of teenagers, I refuse to surrender my reading choices to them as well. Those sext-addicted little monsters a...

Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce books

Ironically I put off reading the first Flavia de Luce book for some time purely because of the title.The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie sounded to me like a syrupy Southern sort of thing, something I don’t naturally gravitate to. As I now know it is not that at all. Far from it. I finally got into the series with the second book, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag,for which I had an ARC and was completely and utterly hooked. The books are delightful, not children’s books as such, but...

Novel-To-Screen Film Festival Featuring “Hugo”

I’m thrilled to be part of a panel that will follow a screening of the movie, “Hugo” as part ofthe Novel-To-Screen Festival here in New York, April 4-5, 2013. The festival is a partnership between the National Book Foundation and Pratt Institute. All screenings are free and open to the public, but seats are limited. To reserve your seat, send an email to Sherrie Young atsyoung@nationalbook.orgwith “RSVP for Novel-to-Screen” in the subject line. Here’s a bit more from the website:

“HUGO” – FRID...

Learning About Africa: Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History

Abina and the Important Menis a compelling and powerfully illustrated “graphic history” based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. The book is a microhistory that does much more than simply depict an event in the past; it uses the power of illustration to convey important themes in world history and to reveal the processes by which history is made.

The above is from the publisher’s description of Trevor R. Getz...

Keep Listening and Keep Trying

I just came across “Plain and Natural,” an excellent post by editor Wendy Lamb exploring the issues around diversity definitions. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I do worry about my use of terms, that they are the right ones. As those Wendy consults for her post point out, the answer is complicated.

Wendy concludes:

And now I see that I was after the wrong thing—clear, direct language.The language is often awkward because the discussion itself is still awkward.The fact that we’re puzzli...

Lemony Snicket and John Klassen’s THE DARK

The Darkis a fantastic about-to-be-released picture book by Lemony Snicket, illustrated by John Klassen. Congrats to whoever paired up those two as they are a stellar match, together creating something original and unique with the sort of scary nighttime issues of so many (of all ages, I would say, though this book features a very young man). They don’t shy away from their hero Laszlo’s fear of the dark even as they celebrate his bravery in addressing it. Here’s the book trailer which does a...

In the Classroom: Battling Books

Tomorrow the fifth annual Battle of the Kids’ Books gets underway with a match between Bomb and Wonder judged by Kenneth Oppel. Now some, I know, are uncomfortable with the concept of books in battle, but I wish they wouldn’t be. In fact, the idea is for sixteen well-lauded books from the year before to be highlighted and admired again in a new and different way. What our judges do is thoughtful and in-depth, considering the two books they have been asked to judge and, in a variety of ways, c...

Authentic for Real?

Why are we so obsessed with the pursuit of authenticity?

Take your pick: indie café or Beyoncé’s lip-syncing? We’ve become obsessed with authenticity and differences between echt and ersatz — but why bother doing anything for real if no one believes that you did?

Very interesting New Statesman piece reflecting on the concept of authenticity now and in the past.

Matilda the Musical on Broadway

Last night a bunch of us children’s lit types (that’s Betsy Bird above) were fortunate enough to be invited to the second preview of the new Broadway showMatilda the Musical.Having loved the London production I saw last August I was curious what this one would be like and I’m happy to report that it is just as good. In particular, Sophia Gennusa, for whom last night was her very first as Matilda, was outstanding. As in London, the kids stole the show; they are absolutely remarkable, every si...

The Elements of Style Rap?

Will Strunk in the house but don’t call me junior

Grammatical genius. Number one word groomer.

I teach English 8 at the school of Cornell

Choose your words carefully or I’ll put you through hell.

E.B. White on the mic, former student of Strunk

A story that flows is all I need to get crunk

Write for the New Yorker, papers marked up in scarlet

I spin webs with words like my name was Charlotte.

via brainpickings