Star picks: #YAsaves and items of interest
Like a lot of the YA community, I've been fairly immersed in the #YAsaves campaign that followed an article in the Wall Street Journal proclaiming 'contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity'.
As someone who is all too aware of her inclination to spew forth virulent opinions on things that make me angry, I (very sensibly, ifIdosaysomyself) decided to think it over before making any comment on it. Well, a few days later, my thoughts on how Wrong the article is have not changed, but in the meantime many, many people have written thoughtful and considered articles that pretty much sum up my feelings on the matter. Handily, Read Alert has linked to most of them.
One other #YAsaves perspective that I found very interesting (particularly in light of last week's Rip'n'Roll ridiculousness) was Gayle Forman's. Gayle's post on 'crappy journalism, and the dangers of bullying loudmouths setting the agenda' was a timely reminder that a) just because it's in the news doesn't mean it is news, and b) media beat-ups like this don't reflect the beliefs of the majority of people.
Non-#YAsaves posts starred in my google reader last week included:
On The Nightstand's review of Little Sister (but of course!)April Henry's advice on what to do if you're tempted to cheat on your WIPKurt Vonnegut's brilliant story diagrams, via Mental Flossverypurpleperson's Hercules beetle emerging (as someone who has watched this...pet grow with a sense of both fascination and revulsion, this was big news!)Also, as reported in last week's star picks, I gave Kate Constable's 250 word trick a whirl and the end result was 10,000 words by the end of the week. To celebrate, here is a bookish tune...
As someone who is all too aware of her inclination to spew forth virulent opinions on things that make me angry, I (very sensibly, ifIdosaysomyself) decided to think it over before making any comment on it. Well, a few days later, my thoughts on how Wrong the article is have not changed, but in the meantime many, many people have written thoughtful and considered articles that pretty much sum up my feelings on the matter. Handily, Read Alert has linked to most of them.
One other #YAsaves perspective that I found very interesting (particularly in light of last week's Rip'n'Roll ridiculousness) was Gayle Forman's. Gayle's post on 'crappy journalism, and the dangers of bullying loudmouths setting the agenda' was a timely reminder that a) just because it's in the news doesn't mean it is news, and b) media beat-ups like this don't reflect the beliefs of the majority of people.
Non-#YAsaves posts starred in my google reader last week included:
On The Nightstand's review of Little Sister (but of course!)April Henry's advice on what to do if you're tempted to cheat on your WIPKurt Vonnegut's brilliant story diagrams, via Mental Flossverypurpleperson's Hercules beetle emerging (as someone who has watched this...pet grow with a sense of both fascination and revulsion, this was big news!)Also, as reported in last week's star picks, I gave Kate Constable's 250 word trick a whirl and the end result was 10,000 words by the end of the week. To celebrate, here is a bookish tune...
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