Monica Edinger's Blog, page 67
February 6, 2013
February 3, 2013
It’s a Children’s Book (Not Young Adult)!
I’ve been enormously irritated with the popular media use of the term young adult for books that are actually children’s books. Wanting to document and draw attention to this I’ve started a tumblr, It’s a Children’s Book (Not Young Adult)!, By all means follow it, but better yet, if you happen to see one of these irritating misuses, please let me know and I’ll add it in, giving you full credit of course!
January 31, 2013
To Change or Not to Change, That is the Question
Recently I did a brief post noting a Guardian article about a dilemma in Germany involving what to do about an older, but still beloved children’s book with some language that is very problematic today. I wasn’t surprised because I had noticed such imagery and language before in my childhood German books and also because this is a difficult situation that is happening in many countries, not just Germany. Now Judith Ridge has written an incredibly thoughtful post related to this, “Censor or su...
January 28, 2013
Thoughts on Newbery: My Reactions to the 2013 Newbery Medal and Honors
My good friend fairosa was on this year’s Newbery Committee so I think what was most important for me this morning as I headed into the Seattle Convention Center for the award announcements was that I could feel sincerely happy for this committee’s decisions. That said, I admit I was nervous. We were roommates, but she was absolutely mum, mum, mum as she had to be (and as I was when she was my roommate my Newbery year). But oh my goodness am I happy with their choices. I’m not generally a cri...
January 27, 2013
Thoughts on Newbery: Tis the Night Before Newbery…
and all through Seattle, not a creature is stirring especially not the tired members of the 2013 Newbery Committee.
To help prepare those not as familiar as others about what to expect tomorrow I’ve written a “Top Ten Things You May Not Know About the Newbery Award” for the Nerdy Book Club.
Don’t know about you but I am very excited for tomorrow morning!
January 24, 2013
SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books: The 2013 Contenders
This is the fifth year of SLJ’s Battle of the Kids’ Books, a fun fantasy battle modeled on which is itself modeled on basketball’s March Madness. Fun is the operative word here. The idea is to simply use the structure of a battle or match between two often very different, but always lauded books judged by a very distinguished writer of children’s or young adult books. We’ve been incredibly fortunate in having a stellar collection of judges over the years. Lois Lowry, K...
January 22, 2013
Coming Soonish: Elizabeth Knox’s Mortal Fire
Even though Mortal Fire isn’t out till June I want to write about it now to get the word out as it is simply spectacular. And to encourage those fantasy fans among you unfamiliar with Elizabeth Knoxto go and read her two other also fabulous young adult books,Dreamhunter and Dreamquake,the later a Printz honor book. What, you may wonder, are they like? I would agree with Knox’s own answer in thisrecent interview:
Megan Whalen Turner’sQueen’s Thiefbooks, because of the machinations, vigour and s...
January 20, 2013
The Unknown Story of Christopher Goodchild and Margaret Wise Brown
Thanks to Michael Patrick Hearn for altering me to this.
January 18, 2013
Fascinating to-do about changing language in a classic German children’s book
The German publisher of the 1957 children’s classic Die Kleine Hexe (The Little Witch) by Otfried Preußler has made some changes that are creating controversy. Very interesting stuff.
German publisher attacked for bowdlerising children’s classic | Books | guardian.co.uk.
Peevishness
Jen and Lisa over at Reads for Keepsdid a forthright post a few weeks back on some of their pet peeves in children’s books. They followed that up by reaching out to some of us to give them our pet peeves. Mine are in this post and there are more here.Fun and illuminating to see what bugs different readers.
