Writer's Crush on Sherman Alexie

Last week's novels focused on heros and antiheros. I read The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I loved this book for so many reasons. Although I'm not entirely sure what being a hero does or does not entail? What I particularly loved about this novel, was how Junior is a hero in the typical sense (he gets to date the cool girl and be the star of the basketball team) but also in a more profound way. Throughout the novel, Junior tries to bridge the gap between his identities, as a Spokane native and as a member of his predominantly white middle class high school. The way that he negotiates these identities is what makes him a hero. I find this ability to compromise most admirable.

This book has such a strong emotional pull for me. I'm not really a cryer, but this book made me shed a tear more than once. Junior is such an unlikely hero because of his man challenging circumstances. The poverty he faces daily is endemic in his community and threatens to ruin his life as well. His parents depression and alcoholism prove to be problematic for him as he has few adults he can depend on. The deaths he faces is profound as well, and his grappling with his own feelings of guilt and responsibility are one more obstacle that the hero must come to terms with. Also, the terrible physical challenges he has had since birth add to his feelings of being an outcast for which he has been ridiculed relentlessly.

Issues of ethnicity and class are very prominent in this book, and I liked how our "hero" was neither white nor comfortably middle class.

Street Lit

I think the street lit genre is probably one of the best ways to counter the issues we've been discussing about the white-washed publishing industry in YA lit. Since I've been researching and writing for my seminar next week on realistic fiction, this addresses a whole other segment of YAs whose stories are often ignored by novelists. Unfortunately, the experiences of youth who live in impoverished ghettos where drugs, violence, unplanned pregnancies, and gangs are a reality. Much like problem novels and realistic fiction, street lit can be an outlet for urban youth to deal with the horrifying problems they face in their communities. This not only draws in a relatively un-tapped or reluctant reader base, but serves as bibliotherapy, which I'll talk about more next week. 

I imagine that street lit is not without its critics. While some may find it to be a source of inspiration to avoid negative life situations, others may see it as an acceptance of problems in ghetto communities. I would fall towards the former, but parents or educators may see it as problematic and challenge the literature -- especially if they have no experience with the kind of life the average urban lit reader lives. 

Reading Chapter One of The Fault in Our Stars

Be still my heart. John Green's new book is due out January 2012. Here is the man himself reading the first chapter of the novel. I absolutely love the title. So jazzed for this.

Photo Essays and Non-Fiction

Historically, children's non-fiction literature has been sparse in terms of illustrations, presumably under the assumption that visual stimulation is counterproductive to the learning process. I kind of linked the explosion of illustrations in children's or YA nonfiction because of the re-discovery of childhood post Second World War in the 1950s. After some depression of this type of publishing during the Vietnam War (Thanks, President Nixon!) the 1970s and 1980s mark the first exhibits of photo essays. Cart mentions the Eyewitness series, which I always loved when I was young. They are not text-heavy at all, and the visuals are great. While I think there should be some kind of preparation for YAs for post-secondary non-fiction, the kinds of illustrations of pictures I recall from my history textbooks made the entire process less overwhelming. Cart makes a point to mention that not all YA non-fiction has to be curriculum-based textbooks. YALSA's award for best non-fiction could point to an increased interest in non-fiction. I wonder if illustrated e-book biographies on interesting people, historical or otherwise, would be an effective way to increase non-fiction for YAs. As a historian, I found it kind of discouraging that there is still such a stigma attached to the alleged boringness of history, but changes in approaching its study (i.e. through less dense text and pages heavily illustrated) could alleviate that issue.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend

For this week I read Anatomy of a Boyfriend for our topic on sex in YA lit. I think this novel had a lot of potential to be more interesting, but it really fell flat for me. At the beginning of the novel, Dom is an over-achieving pre-med student, but becomes entirely consumed with Wes and their slowly evolving relationship. Although I didn't have a problem with Snadowsky's writing style, Dom becomes so obsessive in this relationship, it is exhaustingly cliche. Although relatable, in terms of being young and new in a relationship, she becomes so profoundly one-track minded it is exhausting.

I felt that after Dom and Wes have sex, she becomes so much more...irritating. Again, the obsessive tendencies are tiresome, but are again, can be somewhat relatable -- but no one really wants to talk to (or read about for some 250 pages) "that girl." Just saying. What I found somewhat jarring was that while they used protection, they completely neglected discussions about the Pill or anything of that nature, which considering Dom's control-freakish nature would have made more sense to me at least.

Literacies across Media

I don't think I was very surprised with Margaret Mackey's findings in this chapter, although the link she drew between interest and accessibility was interesting. I have to admit that I had particularly enjoyed the responses to Anne of Green Gables. Having never gotten in to it myself, to this day, because of language (and, I'm sorry, lameness), their thoughts resonated with me. Perhaps that is a signal to librarians to be aware of these types of barriers for the average young reader. I also found it very interesting how she observes that there is a link between familiarity and an increased chance of enjoying the novel or game. I actually saw a comic based things customers say in a comic book store, and remember reading one mother saying her child experienced less anxiety reading if he knew the movie and/or how it ended already.

Her observations on fluency and ability to decode a text as important were also interesting. I feel most people prefer not to struggle with reading words on a page or mastering the commands of a video game. Still, I found her ideas about different types of literacy, or what I came to think of it as understanding concepts through different media (i.e. book, film, CD-ROM)

Book Trailer: Scott Pilgrim - Precious Little Life

Below is the link to mine and Ira's book trailer for the first novel of the Scott Pilgrim series.

Ch-ch-check it out,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6U91beN0Iw