The reason I did not get any writing done tonight…
I run a Harry Potter club after school, and tomorrow is our last meeting of the year.
The HP logo and the snakes were the hardest.
My brother suggested I do a Gryffindor lion in red icing… Ummm. NO.
PS- I listened to A Very Potter Musical while creating these cookies. If you don’t know what that is, your life is not complete and you’re not a true Potter fan. Click below.
A Very Potter Musical Act 1 Part 1
You’re welcome.
Today I attended the 2nd annual Gaithersburg Book Festival.
http://www.gaithersburgbookfestival.org/
We had gorgeous weather and it is held in a really pretty area in Olde Towne Gaithersburg. It was just as well organized as the National Book Festival in DC with labeled tents, books for sale/signing, food, and detailed colored programs.
The first speaking event was a panel discussion titled “There’s a Children’s Book in Me–How Do I Get it Published?” The five authors on the panel were very knowledgeable, and I enjoyed listening to them speak about their own personal writing experiences. They gave out a useful little flyer with commonly asked questions about children’s publishing.
I knew most of the information at this discussion already, but it was nice to reaffirm that I’m doing all the right things, such as joining SCBWI, writing every day, conferences, critiques, staying well-read in my genre, etc. Not to mention getting my MFA in Children’s Literature.
I ended up buying two of the author’s books because they appealed to my interests. I bought Jennifer Allison’s Gilda Joyce series for middle grade readers. It’s a mystery series about a girl who is a psychic investigator that looks like something I would have LOVED as a young girl. It will be perfect easy reading when I’m done with all my grad school texts. Jennifer had some good advice about revision, and she also spoke about how she’s learned a lot from teaching and listening to her students. I really identified with a lot of what she spoke about. Check out the author’s website below.
I also bought Pamela Ehrenberg’s book Tillmon County Fire. The book tells the story of a hate crime in a rural community through several different characters. Definitely sounds interesting, and I’m always looking for books that give me insight on how to write from multiple points-of-view. Pamela also spoke about how she teaches classes at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. Once I’m done grad school, this would be a great resource nearby to keep me motivated and writing! Information about her books and The Writer’s Center can be found on her website:
http://www.pamelaehrenberg.com/Site/Home.html
Another author I really enjoyed listening to is Wendy Shang. Her first book The Great Wall of Lucy Wu just came out and I loved the excerpts so much that I had to buy it. I can’t do the summary justice, so here is a summary from Wendy Shang’s website:
Lucy Wu, aspiring basketball star and interior designer, is on the verge of having the best year of her life. She’s ready to rule the school as a sixth grader and take over the bedroom she has always shared with her sister. In an instant, though, her plans are shattered when she finds out that Yi Po, her beloved grandmother’s sister, is coming to visit for several months — and is staying in Lucy’s room. Lucy’s vision of a perfect year begins to crumble, and in its place come an unwelcome roommate, foiled birthday plans, and Chinese school with the awful Talent Chang.
Her plans are ruined — or are they? Like the Chinese saying goes: Events that appear to be good or bad luck often turn out to be quite the opposite, and Lucy finds that while she may not get the “perfect” year she had in mind, she can create something even better.
Wendy was an excellent public speaker (not all the authors today were…), and I connected with a lot of things she said. She brought up joining SCBWI (I just did!) and applying for grants (I need to do that!). She also spoke about describing sensory details and how scents and textures can bring a scene to life. I’m confident Wendy has a long career ahead of her as a children’s writer. I bought her book and can’t wait to read it! Check out her website:
I also heard the following authors:
Newbery Winner, Clare Vanderpool, author of Moon Over Manifest
National Book Award Winner, Kathryn Erskine, author of Mockingbird
Alison Hart, American Girl author
Dominique Paul, author of The Possibility of Fireflies
Alan Orloff, adult mystery author
And finally, two pictures of the event:
If you click on the link below, you’ll find the editors of Scholastic speaking about their upcoming book releases this fall. It’s pretty awesome to pair editor’s faces with names as well as hearing what they get excited about in a book.
I’m also going to be adding several books to my to-read list!
Thanks to author, Maggie Stiefvater, who shared this link.
http://www.scholastic.com/librarianpreview/
(I have only watched the YA segment so far. You can watch the whole thing or pick and age/segment to watch.)
If you want to write children’s literature, you should join SCBWI (Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). They send you all kinds of awesome newsletters and info about the world of children’s publishing. You can join even if you aren’t a published author.
I joined this year after a recommendation from one of my grad school professors, and have been really impressed with everything they’ve sent me.
They also hold two BIG conferences each year. The summer conference is in Los Angeles. The winter conference is in New York City.
Just to show you what caliber of speakers are at these conferences, here are the keynote speakers for the Summer 2011 conference: Laurie Halse Anderson, Libba Bray, Bruce Coville, John Green, Norton Juster, Donna Jo Napoli, Mary Pope Osborne, Gary Paulsen, Jerry Pinkney, Jon Scieszka and David Small
Yeah. They’re all kind of a big deal.
Downside: The conference is expensive. Registration is $425 for SCBWI members and $525 for non-members. That’s just registration… there’s also airfare, hotel…
And then there’s this optional extra day of workshops you can sign up for (for another $200). I was curious what kind of workshops they offered, so I opened their cute little flyer… and see…
One workshop is taught by Arthur A. Levine.
The editor who did Harry Potter.
Arthur A. Levine
Arthur A. Levine
Arthur A. Levine
O. M. G.
The workshop was already sold out.
Not that I would have the $1,000 dollars it would cost to fly out to LA and go to this thing.
Especially not after the $8,000 worth of grad classes this summer.
But if I could make that class happen… if I could take a class with the guy who published Harry Potter… I would.
Summary:
A girl named Tiffany discovers she is a witch and must rescue her brother from an evil queen. Tiffany gets help from little blue men and learns to navigate between dreams and reality.
Positives:
Pratchett creates a quirky voice for Tiffany with lots of witty puns and unusual similes/metaphors.
The Nac Mac Feegles are one-of-a-kind characters and rather endearing.
Negatives:
The Queen really wasn’t all that threatening.
The world was not particularly engaging for a fantasy novel. Not very vivid. Not a place I want to travel to.
The stories about Granny Aching were boring.
Clever and original concept. Kids will love looking though this scrapbook style collection of notes and objects to figure out the story.
However, I think the format of the book causes the book to become dated VERY, VERY quickly. The IM chat screens looked ancient. The pop culture references via magazines and the interests of the girl also made the book feel dated. Example: The girl wants to be the Sugar Plum Fairy in a ballet production. Comes off as very cliche and traditional. What about soccer, basketball, lacrosse, volleyball, or one of the many sports the modern girl participates in?
I don’t know how to do a book like this and keep it timeless. It would be a serious challenge.
I’d also like to see this concept applied with cultural diversity in mind. Meatloaf and ballerinas and science fair projects… screams white suburbia.
The graphic layout/style would really appeal to English Language Learners and lower socioeconomic kids.
I was so optimistic about this book that I chose to read it first. Reviews compared it to The Giver. The cover reminded me of Katniss in Hunger Games. But sadly this book did not live up to either for me.
What the book is about:
In a future world, some sort of nuclear disaster has caused worldwide destruction and poverty. Most people are left mutated by the radiation and struggling to survive. There is an island of all women who are untainted by radiation and guard their island against the outside world. The girls live by a strict code of rules and have no memories of how the world used to be. They fear men and the mutants.
Why I think my professor chose this book:
I’m trying to think like my professor and analyze why tis book would be a good representation of sci-fi YA (particularly sci-fi that looks at gender). This book is designed to promote feminist discussion. It’s the major theme of the book: feminism. That’s one reason why I think he chose it. Another possible reason (and one of the only things I found interesting) was how the future people in the book described objects from the past. Example: A large flat screen TV mystified the girls as there was no electricity, and they did not know what it did. So they described it as a gray glass window that does not show you the view outside. These descriptions were interesting because the reader would be trying to guess what object was being described, and from a sci-fi writer’s viewpoint you wonder how you would attempt to describe unknown objects from the past.
Why I did not particularly like the book:
The book was very dark and depressing. Suicide, drugs, murder. Not what I normally choose to read. I like my dystopian lit books, but I still want to be rooting for my main character. I still want the dystopian world to be intriguing. I found the setting to be desolate and dull. I felt no connection with Keller. I did not find this to be a page turner at all. There were some strange passages that described nipples and nudity. And I really would never recommend this book to a teen I teach. I would feel uncomfortable doing so because of the subject matter in the book (drugs, nudity, suicide, murder, anti-Christianity, rape). I’d imagine many adults would feel similarly, and that will make this book a hard sell to school and libraries. The only similarity to The Giver is that the book is about a strict dystopian society and written in unflowery, simple prose. Perhaps Keller is a little like Katniss in that they both make tough decisions, are forced into roles they don’t want, and show leadership qualities. But I didn’t care much about Keller. I did care about Katniss.
What I wish this book had delved deeper into:
The relationships between the “pure” women who have been unaffected by radiation and the outside world. More discovery about the mutant men who visit the island. More about Ms. Windsor, her leadership, and the state of her people. More about the disaster that created this world.
This weekend wore me out more than classes. Halloween Party (I know it’s July. Don’t ask.) I was kind of disappointed in the costumes. I’d heard it was a big deal, and was expecting cool, kid’s lit themed costumes– and it was a let down. There were only 3-4 cool costumes, including my own last minute Harry Potter costume. Oh well.
HOWEVER
I do think you have to examine any extremely successful person and examine why they were able to stand out among the crowd. She DID get published. She HAS made millions. So she must have done a few things right.
Here are my guesses as to why Meyer had such success:
Timing
I think Harry Potter had a very large female reader population who was left with nothing once that series finished. All these girls/young women were looking for a nice chunky book series to fill a hole. I think Meyer was lucky enough to fill that niche.
First Love
A huge aspect of why Meyer has been so successful is that she was able to recreate what it feels like to fall in love that first time. You can argue with me all you want, but I really do think she did this well. Though, this is also what makes her writing poor because in order to capture this feeling, she did things like describe Edward’s eyes 876,253 times (I made that number up, but you get the point.) All the repetitious descriptions of Edward, while poor writing, do take girls back to when they were teenagers where they would obsess over that one boy. From doodling his name over and over and over. To memorizing where he’d be at different parts of he school day. The repetition of her writing reminds us what it was like to be all-consumed by thoughts of one person.
Love Triangle
I don’t think the series would have been nearly as successful without Jacob. If the books had just been about Bella and Edward, it would have sizzled out much earlier. The smartest choice Meyer ever made was to put Edward on the backburner for book 2 and take the time to develop Jacob’s character. And then, what she did was make two characters that are such polar opposites. I must say that she did a good job in making both characters so different, but still making them both lovable. Edward being uptight, cold, protective, dangerous. Jacob being a fun-loving, warm, honest, comforting. I really do think she did a good job of developing these two characters. They are the ones that drive the stories.
Soooooo… Yeah, Stephenie Meyer is no Shakespeare. Yeah, her last book is a joke and she doesn’t know how to end a series. Yeah, there are better writers out there who deserve to make more money than she does. But the reading population doesn’t buy books based on how well written they are. Meyer is a commercial/popular writer who found a niche, created a brand, and milked it for all its worth. She found a subject with mass appeal.
And so I think a lot of the writers who criticize her have been bitten by jealousy. But if you want to make money off your writing, it’s not just how pretty your words sound, you have to consider your audience. Does this have mass appeal or is it too edgy? You have to think about it. Meyer hit on a idea with mass appeal, and then gave her audience what they wanted most.
And yes, I will admit I saw Eclipse last night. And yes, I enjoyed every minute of it. (Though that will probably be the last Twilight movie I enjoy.)
Taken from book flap:
Described by the Washington Post as “America’s best living author for young adults,” Richard Peck is the first children’s writer ever to have been awarded a National Humanities Medal. His extensive list of honors includes the Newbery Medal, a Newbery Honor, the Margaret A. Edwards award, the Scott O’Dell Award, and the Christopher Medal. He has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award.
I just finished the book A Season of Gifts which I’ll be discussing in class tomorrow. (Full post after discussion) Loved the book and I have no idea how this guy has avoided my Kid Lit radar!
Wordy Hughes 