The Starring Debate

I’m reading a few blog posts this Friday morning (wow, almost noon, now.. seeing a movie that lets out at 3:15 a.m. and home after 4:00 a.m. definitely warps one’s timeline…) regarding whether to give stars to individual book reviews and notes and how people might take the starring system and use to their advantages:

At School Library Journal – A Fire, A Fireplace & a Tea Cozy examines “To Star or Not to Star“;

At Educating Alice, my friend Monica Edinger talks about “The Thing About Stars“;

And The Goddess of YA Literature denounces the whole starring system in her “Seeing Stars and Seeing Red” — which also touching on another topic that keeps me on my toes (but has not prevented me from taking forward steps): namely, whether to write negative reviews or not.  That will be another post for another day.

Here’s my own thoughts as posted in a comment to Tea Cozy’s query:

I agonize about starring a LOT on Goodreads — since you’re right about how so many books have both merits and flaws and how can one easily show that in the STARS system (especially when it’s only 5 stars.. I have so many books that I’d give 3.5 that wind up only getting 3.) There is also the differences between one reader and the next: I noticed that I give out a lot more 3 stars than 5s because to me FIVE is near perfect and there are just not that many near perfect books out there — but many readers freely bestow five stars to indicate that “This is a GOOD book! Really GOOD.” (but probably not near perfect.)

I do use the stars for myself — I sort them by my own preferences so when I compile a list for work or when I need to recommend something to someone and memory failed me, my own system really helps. I also semi-rely on the average star system to check on books I have not read or books I have but want to take a pulse of the general public. I like the rating distribution / percentage chart. It’s not a perfect reflection, but I think it is telling.

The biggest pet peeve I have is seeing a book that’s STILL TO BE PUBLISHED receiving stars based on the anticipation/expectation of the fans. Unless they are all conscientiously changing their reviews/stars after actually reading the books, this can throw off the average quite a bit.

Like Ed, I think if you do post your stars publicly so the others (including educators and authors/publishers/editors) can see — it is only fair that you give reasons to substantiate the rating.

(I will leave the reason why I stopped assigning low count stars on this blog for another day.) 

Why I Love Paper Books

Reposting (with a little editing) my comments from a facebook conversation here:

Regarding the switching over from reading paper books to purely ebooks for whatever reasons: Not that I don’t see that the words and stories and characters are what ultimately most readers want to “get out” of books they read. I too read books on my computer, on my phone, on kindle and iPads and I get about as much joy out of the content as reading a paper book.

However, I cannot stress enough the value of books as objects of art and am always in awe by the artistry of expert book designers and producers: the tactile pleasure that one can gain from touching a specifically selected paper (say, the graph paper quality materials for the Templeton Twins books or the rough cut edged paper for The Tale of Desperaux) or even just simply the weight or trim size that varies from book to book so there is a physical memory of a particular book — holding horizontally Where the Wild Things are and opening it wide when sharing with a child on my lap or carrying the heavy tome of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I do not ever want to lose the opportunity to have all these added values that so far only paper books can achieve.

I am holding a dainty book in my hand — it has a lot of white space (because it’s a free verse novel) and the page number is placed in a very unconventional place, with a bit of decorative design (that echoes the theme of the story) around each number… This makes me want to say, “Thank you,” to the book designer, to those who still take great care and artistic pride in making the books perfectly to enrich my life!

When seeing someone else carrying a book I have read and loved and their thorough absorption in the world it opened for them, I feel an instant connection. Alas, with all the e-readers, I can no longer play I-Spy-What-Others-Read on the road or on the subway! I am deprived! I tell you, Deprived!!!

(An added thought about the environment… paper, when produced without extreme logging practice and with effort of recycling, etc. is bio-degradable and can be “regrown” always…. I wonder, sometimes, about the electronic and plastic parts of eReaders and devices: are they more environmentally friendly? When old devices are tossed – recycled – what happens to them, really?)

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This is why reading fiction can still teach one a LOT of “facts” in life: as I pondered the plausibility of a specific animal’s breeding behavior in book 55, I embarked on an adventure of educating myself something that I had never wondered because I thought I already “knew” the facts — it turned out, I was wrong and now I’m one-fact richer than yesterday .

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http://sdlempke.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/all-awards-are-not-equal/

All Awards Are Not Equal –> Mom’s Choice Award is obviously not proof of quality children’s literature! Be warned.

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Today, I’m thinking about narrative voice choices again. Employing a particular device is like handling fire… Especially when it is an unusual and potent one such as an ignorant, concealing, and unreliable first person narrator. When it is done right, it adds brilliance and life to the tale; but when it is fanned and carelessly left unattended, it will scorch and burn, metaphorically, the pages. The book I am about to finish suffers from just such unskilled fire keeper and, in this reader’s opinion, has been badly and unjustly incinerated. The idea of the tale is a solid and interesting one, but the book is definitely made inferior by the unwise choice of such a narrative device as beyond the talent of the author.

Pottermore and Fan Fiction Discussion

My students have gotten into Pottermore since it opened to the general public last week. (I did, too, and find it incredibly fun!) In the school Science Fiction / Fantasy Club forum, a thread of FanFiction and Shipping discussion inspired me to write the following:

I have never really read an online fanfiction. I try to be open minded and don’t want to evaluate anything without actually having experienced it.

I can imagine respectful and good fan fiction writing — it’s a way for budding writers to practice writing, take something already in shape to fill in details, and to receive feedback on their writing. If you think about it, the authors for spin-off novel series from the Star Wars and Star Treks movies/tv shows are just “published, in print” fan-fiction.

And, guest writers of Doctor Who episodes like Neil Gaiman are also “fans” who write their own stories based on the universe and characters created by other people.

So, with that in mind and with Ben Ginzberg’s point of having people more versed in the genre — I’d like to have Ben recommend some great fanfiction out there for our members to peruse. So our discussion can be more informed.

And I wonder — if YOU were to write a fanfiction based on the HP series — what would you have changed and where would you take your readers?

I can think of a few myself:

1. I will make Draco Malfoy more interesting in the last book — that there will be a shift in his heart and mind – he will be one of the true heroes who save the day. Actually, I’ll have him DIE for Harry or at least to save his mother. I’ll DEFINITELY not let him live and have a wife and have children as presented in the epilogue.

2. I will try to expand the Wizarding World so it’s not so Euro-centric — after all, there are Chinese Dragons so you’d think that when they host a World Cup or a Wizarding Tournament, it will include some other cultures.

3. I will probably continue the storyline that was dropped by J.K. Rowling about the House Elves and their rights.

4. I will definitely weave in a couple of muggles to be paired with a couple of Wizards. The most likely candidates that will open to such “ships” will be: Luna, who is loving and open minded and will probably find living half in the wizarding world and half in the muggle world very enlightening; George Weasley: I believe there will be someone in the Muggle World who will share his sense of humor and fill the empty spot that Fred left behind. It could even make sense for this companion to be an enterprising smart guy.

Just some thoughts on a Tuesday afternoon.

Re-thinking The Hunger Games movie adaptation

I sent this rant to a group of high school students in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Club at my school after some kid (jokingly, she said afterwards) proclaimed to be all TEAM GALE….

A student responded first to the Team Gale comment:

Upon viewing this correspondence, I feel the need to inform everyone that the Hunger Games is not, and will never be, Twilight.

There are no teams like Team Gale or Team Peeta because that is foolish.

This is a book/movie about teenagers brutally murdering each other for the entertainment of a nation. Let’s keep it that way.

I added AND OPPRESSION after “entertainment” in my reply… and then followed it with:

I find the whole Team Peeta and Team Gale thing so irksome. This is NOT a Romantic Trilogy. If you read it or view it that way — you are just one of the Capitol People that the Media successfully has FOOLED!!!

And may I say that the more I think about it, the more I think that the Hunger Games Movie is a SELL-OUT. In order for them to make the movie to be PG-13, they toned down (WAY TOO LOW) the impact of all the deaths. So, to the audience, it has become simply a story that we root for Katniss’ survival and not to contemplate the underlying societal problems that ALLOW for such a thing to happen. The side characters were mostly rendered faceless at their death scenes and the few close-up deaths don’t really speak to the true horror that the book portrayed.

Suzanne Collins created the trilogy to challenge Media and Controlling Governmental Programs — but in the end, all it matters is how much $$ the movie has made and how much it has ENTERTAINED the young and old alike. Folks, we are JUST like the people (sheep??) from the Capitol!!!

Bully, the documentary that presents REAL life children in our REAL life U.S.A. refused to tone down the scenes and language and now went with NR and will only be shown at VERY limited theaters and won’t reach the intended audience.

THIS is the REALITY of your society and our proud Nation….

Sorry for the rant…

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During the last two weeks, I have experienced a tremendous internal “paradigm shift” when it comes to issues regarding racial diversity within my workspace (a k-12 school.) Still forming thoughts and wrangling with what I held true for a long time and what I am starting to realize as inaccurate “read” on some of these issues. Suffice it to say that I was myopic in my view. Isn’t it ironic how I, a Chinese woman who belongs to the LARGEST population in the world, have been thinking of myself as a “minority” race simply because I’ve lived in the U.S.A. for the past 20 years and have taken on, without questioning much, a predominately white perspective? I’ve only seen myself as belonging to the 5% of Asians in the U.S. and not as belonging to the 20% of World population for being Chinese, or to the 50% for being an Asian. (The population of “white” is reported at under 20% worldwide, lower than African/of African descent.) So, when we promote the notion of a Global Perspective to our students, we need to keep using different lenses when interpreting world events, history, cultures, power agents, conflicts, etc. And this HAS everything to do with literature we publish for our young!

Graphic Narratives

I am so pleased that my idea of using “Graphic Narratives” and not “Graphic Novels” as a term that can encompass both fiction and biographies/memoirs (and perhaps even other non-fictional content) seems to be already accepted in the literary circle.  I am going to change all my tags from Graphic Novels to Graphic Narratives and hopefully the library cataloging world can catch up with this better suited terminology so I can change all my library book subject heading assignments, too!

Paradoxes and His Dark Materials

I’ve been listening to The Golden Compass (audio book) and are reminded of one of the many reasons why I adored this trilogy: the brilliantly placed and worded paradoxes by Pullman.  As a quick example: (paraphrased here): “She’s afraid of him… and the thing she fears most is his kindness.”  (Lyra and John Farr). One of my students (now 17) wrote me upon reading my thought on this topic:

Let’s face it, that trilogy is in a very small league of “stories of the century.” Having not read them in years (I think I’d cry again if I did), I will venture to say that such paradox is what makes the three so arresting and breathtaking – a stunning universe that is both new and our own, with religious elements that are both familiar and yet twisted, and in the middle a people just like us but with souls on the outside. So his paradoxical writing is something of a window, a…what’s the word…lens, tunnel, mirror…(it’s late to be thinking)…through which the paradoxes shine even more brightly. And, since conflict is what readers read for, people absolutely love it, because the very writing is in conflict with itself and what it portrays.

Dystopia: Definition

When The Hunger Games first came out, I argued with friends that it is NOT a dystobian story. In my mind, a Dystopian society must start with the government or the people in the story believe that they are creating or living in a Utopian society. Then, something went wrong to make the society an unlivable one. The Giver is definitely a dystopian novel: enforced conformity to eliminate unfairness and yet eventually those whose differences cannot be suppressed suffer great injustice. The Hunger Games, on the other hand, seems to merely feature a really poor political structure and governing principle without first anyone believing that their society was created to give them superior life styles (a Utopia.)

Since then, I heard and read about varied definitions of Dystopia. Some are strict (like mine) but many are quite loose — claiming that a Dys (bad) Topia (place) simply is where the majority of people suffer from the rules set up by the ruling class, whether there is a pretense of social benevolence or not. Most theorists at least agree that this is a sub-genre of Science Fiction — so a historical fiction portraying common people being oppressed is not dystopian.

A dystopia purest at heart, it is still hard for me to accept that The Hunger Games is not just a story of a totalitarian government — unless in the third book, some historical accounts of how the districts came to be inform the readers that the “social experiment” was set up to do something good for the citizens ruled by The Capitol.

I’m reading Incarceron and it fits the dystopian profile much better: Everyone believes that it is Paradise inside of Incarceron and that to live In Era will keep everyone content. Hopefully in a couple of days, I’ll be able to finish the book and note down some of my thoughts regarding this fascinating story.

Team What?

As you can see, I am quoted at the Scholastic’s official blog site as someone who does not quite care whether Katniss ends up with Peeta or Gale. Actually, when Ivy first asked me if I was “Team Peeta” or “Team Gale,” I thought — but this is not TwiSaga where the story is all about Bella’s decision between a cold vampire and a hot werewolf. So I chose a different route: I’m Team Capitol.

No no no, I didn’t mean that I want Katniss to marry The Capitol or side with it or become its minion. I mean that what matters to me is the exploration of the societal structure and Katniss’ (and others’) realization of what’s wrong with the government and how they might be able to rebel against it. I can think of The Capitol as a character and it is the most compelling antagonist and really is the force that moves the plot along and the bedrock that underlies the theme of the story.

So, um, yeah, I’d rather read more about how Katniss deals with The Capitol than whether she’s going to choose Peeta or Gale. I was also asked to make a wild prediction on what I think might happen in Mockingjay. And this is definitely a random answer on the spot: I believe Peeta will be dead, sacrificing himself for Katniss or for the cause, by the end of the story. So, we shall see.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon: An Elegantly Written Book?

I started reading Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, by Grace Lin, while it was still in galley form and had never been able to finish the book.  Friends in my Children’s Literature circle have heard from me for almost a year now how baffled I have been regarding the success of the book (a Newbery Honor) and the adoration of the book from so many reviewers, teachers, and librarians.

And today, I read this blog post from Story Sleuths in which the bloggers praise and analyze the strengths of the writing by Lin.  (This is only Part 1, and posted 4 days ago.  I imagine more posts will follow.)

Finally, I feel compelled and brave enough to share some counter points regarding this book.

I am going to focus on my reaction to the usage of words and phrases by the author and demonstrate how I am not convinced that this is an elegantly crafted volume.  (Although, as a woman who grew up in Taiwan and was exposed to countless Chinese folk tales in book, opera, TV forms, I have a lot of discomfort with Grace Lin’s appropriation of the stories she read as an American girl of Taiwanese descent — even if she made it clear that these are NOT simple retellings of the original stories but based on her views on how these stories COULD have been told.)

Now, I was already a bit annoyed by page 4 because of a personal pet peeve.

• The book is set against a nondescript mystical China, by the way the village is described and the people are portrayed.  Yet, in this fantasy land, in “Ancient” China, Minli’s father replies to her request for a story with “Okay” — an unfortunate word choice that carries strong western and contemporary flavors.  (p. 4)  This is a strong personal pet peeve, as explained in my About Fantasy — Is it OK to say “Okay”? post.

Grace Lin really loves using the word “seemed” in delivering her descriptive sentences.  It occurs with such frequency that it becomes monotonous and because “seem” is such an uncertain word, it often weakens the impact of the imagery.  (p. 110 “… the silence of the room seemed to ache with loneliness.” p. 111 “She seemed to glow like a pearl…” p. 117 “light of the moon seemed to bind the magistrate still.” p. 140, “The king’s words seemed to hang in the air.”  p. 141, “The moon seemed to tremble…” and on and on… and in this one page, the narrative contains three “seemed” in three short paragraphs.

• . . . Minli’s footsteps seemed to hush the night as she made her way toward the Jade River.  (This one works all right for me because her footsteps could not have hushed the night but could have created the sense of hushing the night.)
• . . . The moon shone above so even in the darkness of the night, the fish seemed to burn a bright orange.  (This one puzzles me.  I know that the fish did not burn but was it bright orange?  If the sentence were “the fish seemed to burn with an orange flame” or “the fish seemed to burn, glowing bright orange”  it would have delivered a clearer imagery.)
• . . . For the moment the fish seemed shocked and was still, like a flickering flame on a match.  (It would have worked if the fish was simply socked or in shock.  And we wouldn’t have had three consecutive “seemed’s” on one page.)

Now, that last sentence kind of “shocked” me when I first encountered it.  How could a fish that is shocked into “stillness” be also “flickering” like a flame on a match that does not stop moving?  (After considering this several times, I could have explained that perhaps the water has been moving moments before so that the water makes the brightly lit orange fish scales sparkle and flicker.  But this figure of  speech did not make the imagery clear.  It does not illustrate or illuminate.)

Here are two more examples of odd similes:

• On page 42 … “only barely could he see the faint footprints on the ground — it was like searching for a wrinkle in a flower petal.”  I did a triple-take and quite a bit of head scratching when I read this sentence: Many flowers have petals that are full of wrinkles.  Did the author mean that it is extremely EASY to make out the faint footprints on the ground? If so, does not it contradict the “barely” sentiment proposed in the first portion of the sentence?
• On page 61 … “Under his gaze, Ma and Pa suddenly felt like freshly peeled oranges, and their words fell away from them.”  To this day, after re-reading this sentence countless times, I still could not quite figure out how a “freshly peeled orange” might feel.  I guess that it addresses the notion of their “words falling away” from them.   Does that make them feel naked?  Does it have something to do with the speed of the peeling (which does not happen instantly but can be pretty fast, unlike peeling an apple)?  This figure of speech confounds this reader and conceals the full meaning from view.

Of course, plenty of readers disagree with my reaction and I am eager to hear from others who can shed some light on these and other passages from the book that, to me, seem to be on the “Composition 101/Figure of Speech Exercise 5″ level and do not always flow organically to tell a vivid story.

I probably will post more musings on how metaphors and similes should only appear to illustrate, interpret, and illuminate the scenes and emotions and should be avoided at all cost when they contradict, confound, or conceal the underlying, true meanings of the passages.  (My 3-Is and 3-Cs rule!)

Monday Morning Post

This is a post that catches a lot of stuff from the past few weeks:

1. At the Random House summer 2010 preview presentation, this new term surfaced several times: “Tween Clean” –

Books that feature probably slightly older teen characters, dealing with more mature themes but without the “scary” YA elements such as curse words, explicit portrayal of sex, drugs, and other taboo topics, designed for pre-teens and young teens (mostly girls?) who crave the books in the traditional YA Section in the library and at bookstores.

2. It is only a week away from when the Battle of the Kids’ Books (SLJ) officially starts on March 15th and we want your VOTE!!! for the Undead title at the final showdown!

3. Just finished re-reading LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea and am in the middle of writing a post on figurative writing and its use (and mis-use) in children’s books.

Pining for Kiki III, Waiting for Katniss #3, and Excited about Bitterblue!

I (and thousands, if not millions of young readers) need, need, need, to read the NEXT INSTALLMENT in the Kiki Strike series.  The second book was published in 2007.  It’s 2010 and I know the manuscript has not even been submitted for book 3.  Rumor has it that the projected publication date for the third book is 2012 — FIVE — FIVE years after its predecessor.   A child who discovered Kiki Strike and the Shadow City in 2006 at age 9 will be 15 in 2012 and almost too old for it!  We collectively BEG YOU, Kirsten Miller, to finish writing book three and let us have the joy of reading it!  (But, at the same time… we DO understand that you want to make a good book, a good story, and to not disappoint your loyal fans — so, if you are having trouble, we wish you the best at overcoming the problems!)

Mockingjay, as the third (and final?) book in the Hunger Games series is titled, will be out in the stores on August 24th, 2010.  The cover and announcement can be found at the Scholastic’s blog: On Our Minds @ Scholastic.  What do you think of the color?  And isn’t David Levithan hilarious?  (Quote: “Panem is not shaken up when District 9 is nominated for a best picture Oscar.”)

And I can’t be more excited about the prospect of reading Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore — which is some sort of a sequel to Graceling but, as the title indicates, will be about Bitterblue and her Grace.  I want to be surprised,  moved, thrilled, and impressed by it the same way I did for both Graceling and Fire.  And Ms Cashore, keep it up with the one-word titles!  It will be your signature move.

Hope Anita Smith: What a Pleasure to Have You Here!

This is an open letter to thank Hope Anita Smith, poet, extraordinary teacher, and author of The Way a Door Closes, Keeping the Night Watch, and the 2010 poetry collection, Mother P0ems, for her amazing, awesome, and artistic ways in leading six poetry workshops for all our 7th and 8th grade students at The Dalton School, NYC.

Dear Hope,

We were all under your spell and now are all in awe of you!  You brought such energy, generosity, and expertise with you into our classroom and every student got a chance to write a poem under your guidance and inspiration.  Some of the poems that were shared brought chills down my and the teachers’ spines: they were good and the students really put their mind and soul into them.

It is not common when we have an author who prepares three different presentations when the audience is on the same level.   But you did.  The students loved working on the Cool Poem, they definitely struggled a bit with Seven Ways of Looking At ________, and were completely engrossed in “reading” the names of the paint color chips that you brought and applying those to their own Paint Me Like I Am poems.

You are going back to LA today and I wish you the best and I want you to come back to us to work with more students and I want many many more other young people to be inspired by you to explore the wonders of words, to stretch their minds and to discover their hidden potentials as writers and poets.  (I know you have many different workshops for different age groups.)

Hope, take care and let our paths cross again soon!

Snowy Reads

On a snowy morning like this, you should read at least one of these:

The Snow Queen by Andersen

Some Moomin tales by Jansson

East by Pattou AND East of the Sun, West of the Moon

and Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter by Lindgren.

About Fantasy — Is it OK to say “Okay”?

Reading Kristin Cashore’s article, “Hot Dog, Katsa!” in the Jan/Feb 2010 Horn Book (first issue entirely in color!) reminded me why I admire good fantasy writers so much!  It also made me search online and re-read two fantastic articles that also discuss fantasy world building and what makes Good fantasy stories outstanding (or what makes them less so.)  These two articles are Sam Swope’s review in the New York Times: Moonlighting (partially about fantasy books but the focus is on adult writers writing for children) and Jane Langton’s The Weak Place in the Cloth: A Study of Fantasy for Children from the October 1973 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.

I am not embarrassed to report that tears rushed into my eyes as I was moved by some of these authors’ (all fantasy world building masters themselves) insights.  I won’t repeat everything they say here — please please read their articles.  In essence, all three agree that:

just because a writer can dream up a whole lot of fantastic situations, weird creatures, and unusual characters does not make this writer a good fantasy storyteller.  In fact, without the harnessing power of logic, realism, and careful planning — in short, the self-editing process — the work could turn out to be a huge and unconvincing mess.

In Cashore’s article, she also specifically points out the importance of selecting appropriate words in keeping with the setting of the fantasy world.  As the title indicates, you don’t say, “Hot dog, Katsa!” because it takes the reader out of the world of  vaguely medieval setting (in her book Graceling) and shatters the otherwise solidly constructed illusion of a magical realm that could have actually existed.

I think that is why I felt so jarred when encountering the word “okay” on page 4 in the 2010 Newbery Honor title Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.  This book is set in a mythical, undetermined, but quite solidly yesteryear China.  There is no usage of electricity or references of modern day conveniences.  Instead, one meets dragons, talking gold fish, the Goddess of Heaven, and many other fanciful characters while the people work the earth and walk long ways on foot and push carts to sell their goods.  So, seeing a highly Americanized and fairly contemporary word like “okay” used in the dialog between the main character and her father made me cringe.

As a lover of fantasy, I have formed certain ideas.  I hold quite tightly a set of internalized rules.  In short, I ask a lot of the storytellers.  I want them to be versed in the fundamental requirements of good fantasy world building as presented in the articles cited above.  Or, at least, as mentioned in Cashore’s article, I want them to let their characters talk in the “right” language, with the “right” tone.  Of course, what is right or what is not right might vary from one reader to the next in certain cases.  But, there is a general sense of the time and place where people talk a certain way which is not so hard to pin down.   In the case of Minli and her father (Ba,) OKAY is simply Not OK.

Of course, this is not the only book where OK or Okay are used casually by authors when their characters should have no inkling of what this word might mean.   (According to the OED, the expression “OK” meaning “all correct, all right” did not appear until early 19th century USA.)

So, I am making a fairly personal and weak plea to  authors of fantasy novels — unless the world you have built is firmed anchored in a post-early-19th century world (like the one in Percy Jackson and the Olympians,) would it be possible to curb your urge to use OK and find another expression more in keeping with the setting of your world?

What is Reading? To a 4th grader?

This past Tuesday, I surveyed what my 4th graders are currently reading as I do about once a month in Library Class, just to have a sense on some favorite titles and whether they are all engaging in the act of reading.  One boy looked mighty uncomfortable and almost embarrassed when it was his turn.  He squeaked a reply, almost inaudible, “I’m not reading anything.”  I said, “That’s all right.  Let’s find you something to read today.” He replied, “But I am spending a lot of time reading this National Geographics book on the greatest journeys of the world.”  I quickly assured him and the entire class that, “Reading a nonfiction IS READING,” and to never feel bad if you are not the kind of reader who reads only made-up STORIES.

But why, by age 8 or 9, children already have formed this strong belief that if they are not reading Fiction, they are NOT reading?

Feminist or Anti-such?

I, along with my students and thousands of fans, have fallen in love with recent books by Tamora Pierce and Kristin Cashore. (Terrier, Bloodhound, Graceling, and Fire.) These fantasy books all feature incredibly attractive and strong teen females. They fight crimes, they battle monsters, they fall in love but seem to be totally in control of their relationships! They, not the male partners, are the ones who are empowered to choose and make their destinies.

So, when you have these young women, each (Beka, Katsa, and Fire) is taking one or multiple partners to bed, some details have to be attached. Beka got a charm, Katsa and Fire both used an herb — these supposedly will prevent pregnancy — the messy aftermath of their amorous acts.

On the one hand, I am happy that they are “getting it” and having a great time with it. On the other hand, my 21st century, teacher of teens and mother of a pre-teen daughter, mind keeps wondering: What are the BOYS/MEN doing to prevent the communication of the “other” kind of mess? The mess that hangs over millions of modern men, women, and children. Yes, these are Fantasy stories — but since the idea of birth-control are included, what’s to prevent our wonderful writers to also come up with some clever ways so that at least the young people in the stories (and the young people reading the stories) are careful about diseases. (In both Beka Cooper and Fire’s cases, they are sleeping with men who have multitudes of partners before and after themselves.)

Just wondering… Why in these quite feminist slanted stories, men and boys are still not held “accountable” for their actions?