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By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 10/6/2016
There's more to writing a sequel than just continuing the story.
https://nerdybookclub.wordpress.com/2016/09/15/once-more-into-the-breach-a-writer-examines-the-art-of-the-sequel-by-ammi-joan-paquette/
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 2/15/2016
In Book #1, the main character learns how to deal with a bully.
By: Betsy Bird,
on 7/21/2015
Like the rest of America I have watched, enthralled, the debate going on at the child_lit listserv as to whether or not folks should/are choosing to eschew reading Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman.
I’m sorry, what that?
I’m being informed that despite my opinions on the matter, America does not collectively read child_lit. I find this version of the facts suspicious and will look into it further, later.
In any case, here at NYPL, Gwen Glazer came up with an interesting idea. She wrote, “we’re thinking about other authors we wish would suddenly come out (some posthumously) with another novel many years after their first—and only— full-length works of fiction.” Of course, considering the backlash against Lee’s book, one wonders if such sequels would be as desired by the masses as they might once have been. Glazer’s list is fun, so I wondered about what children’s novels we might want to see sequels to. Some already have perfectly good, if not particularly well known sequels, of course. Harriet the Spy, for example. But others might do well. I’m going to try to eschew those books that have had posthumous novels already written by others (Peter Pan’s, Pooh’s, Wind in the Willow’s, A Little Princess’s, etc.) and stick with some that have worlds I’d like to return to. Books like . . .
The Secret Garden
Purging from our brains the lamentable Hallmark version of The Secret Garden which took it upon itself to stage the book as a flashback (the WWI present day bring to mind rejected sequences from Downton Abbey and included such terrible ideas as a Mary/Colin romance and a dead soldier Dickon) I’m not saying that a sequel to this book would be a good idea. Just an interesting one. I mean, you have a house with a hundred empty rooms. Forget the garden, I wanna know the house’s history. But maybe that’s just me.
Holes
Yeah yeah yeah. Look, you can tell me all day long that Small Steps was the sequel, but it wasn’t. It was a companion novel and what I want is more Yelnats. Gimme more of that guy. I liked that guy. I want to know where that guy’s going.
The Phantom Tollbooth
Admit it. It writes itself.
Stuart Little
People always put down Anne Carroll Moore for not loving this little mouse. Well I can attest that in 3rd grade I became appalled by the ending of this book. Stuart sets off in his canoe to find his delightful bird friend and . . . the end. Open ended finales were never for me. I was just so mad when I found out that there wasn’t a sequel. So I’m in the Moore camp. Stuart’s not my favorite but maybe that’s just because I needed more of him. And while we’re at it.
Charlotte’s Web
Sacrilege! Horrors! It would be the worst idea of all time. But . . . come on. I wanna know about those three spider sisters that stay with Wilbur. Forget the rest of the farm, what adventures do they get into? Oh, fine. Bad idea. But I’m still curious.
Any bad ideas/impossible to resist curiosities to share?
By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 9/8/2014
How much should you refer back to the previous book in a sequel?
http://www.teachingauthors.com/2014/08/and-hits-keep-on-comin.html
By: Betsy Bird,
on 4/23/2013
Well sir, it’s a heckuva week. Book stuff is happening out the wazoo, but for a moment I’d like to concentrate on what else is going on in the wider children’s literary world. What say we Fusenews it up a bit, eh?
Of course there’s no way to begin today without a hat tip to the late, great E.L. Konigsburg. The only person, I believe, to win both a Newbery Award and a Newbery Honor in their debut year. Top THAT one, folks! The New York Times pays tribute to one of our luminaries. We had managed to do pretty well in 2013 without losing one of our lights. Couldn’t last forever. Godspeed, Elaine.12. On the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory:
“Kids are not stupid. They are among the sharpest, cleverest, most eagle-eyed creatures on God’s Earth, and very little escapes their notice. You may not have observed that your neighbor is still using his snow tires in mid-July, but every four-year-old on the block has, and kids pay the same attention to detail when they go to the movies. They don’t miss a thing, and they have an instinctive contempt for shoddy and shabby work. I make this observation because nine out of ten children’s movies are stupid, witless, and display contempt for their audiences, and that’s why kids hate them….All of this is preface to a simple statement: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is probably the best film of its sort since The Wizard of Oz. It is everything that family movies usually claim to be, but aren’t: Delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and, most of all, a genuine work of imagination. Willy Wonka is such a surely and wonderfully spun fantasy that it works on all kinds of minds, and it is fascinating because, like all classic fantasy, it is fascinated with itself.” [January 1971]
Speaking of reviews, I owe Travis Jonker a debt of gratitude for reviewing Marguerite Abouet’s Akissi. I read that book in the original French a year or two ago and was completely uncertain if it would ever see the light of day here in the States due to a final story that, quite frankly, DEFIES anything I’ve seen in children’s literature before. The kind of thing that makes Captain Underpants look tame. You have been warned. Great book, by the way. Let’s not lose sight of that.
We made a HUGE historical error, and we are going to fix it! We are going to learn why Kansas wasn’t a Confederate state–why it was a “Free State,” and how it happened. We are also going to visit Kansas on an official apology and correction trip. When we are finished, all Hazardous Tales readers will know how to correct their own copy of Big Bad Ironclad! Stay tuned!
You can see the official ceremony here, but be sure to read all the blog posts he drew to explain precisely why Kansas was a free state anyway. You can see Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, and Part Six.
It’s not the holiday gift giving season, but if you know a librarian in need of a unique gift, I have your number.
Awesomesauce. Thanks to Marchek for the link.
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By: Naomi Bates,
on 10/2/2012
I got the chance to go to Barnes and Noble to do some shopping, and came across some sequels I had no idea were out!!! So, with that in mind, I thought I'd share with you some of the latest sequels to fab YA books already out and about! I knew a few, but with the help of some fabulous librarians from yalsa, I got a more extensive list :)
By: Roger Sutton,
on 7/6/2012
I was out for a run the morning of the 4th when a squadron of Blue Angels came zooming across the sky in formation. The contrast between the Olmsted-ordered beauty of my surroundings (see above, near Ward’s Pond in Jamaica Plain) and the high-tech menace above made me feel like I was in The Giver. So then my thoughts wandered to Lois Lowry’s latest novel, Son, fourth and presumably last in what the publisher is now calling the Giver Quartet.
I like the book (it will be reviewed in the September issue of the Horn Book Magazine) but I do wonder about the wisdom (aesthetic if not commercial) of going to the same well too often. Any time I speak to an audience that includes library students, I plead with one of them to make a master’s thesis (do library school students still write master’s theses? Masters’ theses?) of the intersection of Newbery attention and sequel publication. There are tons of variables, including the fact that no fewer than five Newbery Medals have gone to books that were sequels to books that had previously won Newbery Honors. At least fifteen Newbery winners have spawned sequels, sometimes where you would expect (as with Susan Cooper’s ongoing Dark Is Rising series, or Cynthia’s Voigt’s further adventures of the Tillerman kids) but often where you would not, as with Julie of the Wolves or The Giver or Shiloh. None of these stories needed to keep going, and one thing I like about all those books is the way they end. Here’s hoping Dead End in Norvelt is true to its title.
By: Shannon Whitney,
on 5/8/2012
By: Shannon Whitney,
on 2/17/2012
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By: Michael Young,
on 11/12/2011
By: Stacy Whitman,
on 11/7/2011
I’ve been reading a number of highly anticipated sequels lately, as well as editing a sequel or two myself. It has me thinking about the best ways to reintroduce your reader to your characters and plot that they may have just read last week—or maybe it’s been more than a year. How do you avoid over-dumping on the re-reader without leaving the non-re-reader in the dusts of confusion?
One strategy I’ve seen in sequels for young readers, especially, is to just stop the action entirely at some point in the first chapter and explain what happened in the last book. It’s a trick I saw used a lot in series books for kids when I was a young reader obsessed with Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books.
This doesn’t really work for me. Any stopping of the action for an infodump breaks the spell for me as a reader, taking me time to rebuild my suspension of disbelief. It worked to a point in those old series books because my library didn’t always have every single copy in order when I wanted them (not to mention they were missing several volumes), but especially if you’re not writing series books (as in, shared-world), it’s not the best strategy, in my opinion.
Then there’s the school of thought that just dumps you into the action of the new book. This can work, but it’s tricky. One book I read recently is a good example (no, I’m not going to tell you the name of it): I’m right there with the story until the character thinks of another character who she’s lost touch with. He’s not in any scene for the first quarter of the book, and I was racking my brain that whole time trying to remember which of two or three possibilities he could be, and that confusion wasn’t cleared up when he showed up in-scene. And it’s a confusion that I’m not sure the author could have anticipated. Maybe I should have glanced back at the previous book to remind myself. Was he a love interest? Was he a brother? Was he a potential love interest who turned out to be a brother? (Perhaps too much Star Wars in my diet?) I couldn’t remember until at least halfway through the book, and mostly because I picked up the last book and skimmed. This has happened to me a few times lately.
I think there are ways to help jog the reader’s memory without losing momentum or forcing the reader to go back to the previous book (some readers might not even have the previous book on hand—they might have borrowed it from the library or a friend). In my opinion, the best way to remind readers, whether they’ve just read a book and are launching into the sequel immediately or it’s been a year since they read the last book, is the same principle as getting your reader into a completely new world: through well-placed details planted with a deft touch.
Let’s look at the opening pages of Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy, for an example. The first two paragraphs are right in the moment, Katniss thinking about what’s going on right now and what’s about to happen. We don’t get a direct reference to the Hunger Games until paragraph 3, but all along she’s talking about their outcome because that’s what life is for her now: reporters and camera crews, preparation for the Victory Tour, the dread she feels so much that it’s physically affecting her.
Then in paragraph 3 we get a quick review of book 1 with an in-scene rumination on how much she wants to forget the Hunger Games but isn’t allowed to because it suits the political purposes of the Capital. One paragraph, and it all matters to the current plot. She doesn’t stop the plot to explain what the Hunger Games were, just reminds the reader with a deft touch of the repercussions of all the events of book 1.
Then we’re on to the scene again, and the purpose of Katniss being in the woods: hunting for her best friend, Gale, who can’
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By: Jennie,
on 8/25/2011
The Last Little Blue Envelope Maureen Johnson
It's the Christmas after Ginny returned from Europe. She and Keith are still in a weird transatlantic thing. Maybe. She hasn't heard from him lately. Then Ginny gets a message from someone who has the envelope that got stolen at the end of 13 Little Blue Envelopes, so she's off to England to surprise Keith and finish the journey she began last summer. But, Oliver has other plans. He won't give Ginny the envelope. He's memorized it and if she wants it, he gets to come with her and they'll sell the artwork as soon as they get back and he gets half the cash. Keith won't let Ginny travel alone with such a f***wad and so he's in, too. With Ellis, his new girlfriend.
I'm conflicted about this book. I loved seeing Europe in winter and revisiting some of the places Ginny had gone the previous summer. It has a lot of the same feel of adventure and travelogue of the first book. BUT. The romantic subplot is just SO WRONG AND HORRIBLE that it completely ruined the book for me. There's more on my Spoiler blog, because I have to talk about the very end, so it's spoilery, and full of adult language and no astricks.
ARC Provided by... publisher at ALA
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By: Elizabeth Varadan,
on 6/28/2011
By: LAURIE WALLMARK,
on 4/18/2011
A sequel shouldn't be just a next book about the same character.
http://querytracker.blogspot.com/2011/03/sequels.html
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By: BookEnds, LLC,
on 4/5/2011
I've written a manuscript and have been querying agents with little success. I've outlined a sequel and a third story, because (it may surprise you to hear this) I think my book is excellent, believe it will be published soon, and I want to have a sequel ready when publishers start beating down my door :)
Ok - seriously: I am beginning to think that writing the sequels is not a valuable use of my time. Thus far I've found two blog posts, one from an AAR agent - who agrees with that for a number of reasons.
When I was researching agencies yours seemed particularly friendly towards advising new authors - and I wanted to get your take on this. I want to write a new manuscript: should I write the sequel in the hopes that the first may be published . . . or is it time for me to set this plot line aside and start with something fresh and new?
I do think I’ve written on this before, but as I’ve discovered firsthand, it’s not always easy to find the exact old blog post you want to read. It also never hurts to repeat yourself, and, believe it or not, sometimes my attitude/opinion changes and a new blog post will need to be written to reflect that. In this case, though, my attitude will not change.
While it’s great to outline your sequel or series, I do not think an author should ever write the sequel or full series until she’s under contract. A huge piece of finding an agent or selling your book is based on the marketability of the idea, and the last thing you want to do is spend a significant amount of time on an idea that won’t sell. You can always go back and write the sequel after you’re under contract, but in the meantime, moving in a new direction with a new book and/or series idea is the smarter move. That way you have two fresh, new things to shop around, both with series potential.
Jessica
By: Kimberly Pauley,
on 2/4/2011
A dear friend recently asked me about the books I'm looking forward to this year.
No, that's not what happened.
I was actually talking her EAR off about all the books I'm dying to read. DYING! I'm saving my pennies now and telling my local library to stock these debuts and sequels. I think there's something delicious about waiting for the next book in a series, although at times it can feel torturous. Until then, here's my list (in order of release date). I'm sure some of you know where I'm coming from!
When I heard that the sequel to THE MAZE RUNNER, THE SCORCH TRIALS, will be available October 12th, I wondered how in the world Dashner could revisit such a narrow construct. THE MAZE RUNNER had a fantastic premise: kid wakes up in a maze and must find his way out. There was more to it, but that’s the basic idea. So what could a sequel possibly entail? Dashner can’t exactly stick the kid back into another maze without suspending disbelief further than readers can manage.
Actually, the sequel will follow Thomas and co. as they cross a scorched wasteland in a race to reach a safe haven. But that description leaves me scratching my head—how does that story connect to a story about a kid in a maze? Certainly it’s poised to answer questions left up in the air at the end of THE MAZE RUNNER, and it will bring new challenges, and—I hope—more puzzles to solve. But is that enough to create a coherent series? Perhaps navigating this wasteland will be similar to navigating a maze?
I had the same issue with THE HUNGER GAMES. I loved the first novel, but it left me wondering how the sequel would revisit the main premise: girl must fight to the death in an arena, on camera. I’ll confess that I found much of the set up of its sequel, CATCHING FIRE, to be boring. But I loved the last third of the novel, when Katniss was thrown back into the ring. Some said that that particular plot point was too much of a stretch—but I welcomed the familiar construct. Now how was Collins going to revisit the premise yet again?
I’ll keep this discussion spoiler free and just say that I appreciated her attempt to recreate the structure of the games without actually instigating another round (that certainly would have been completely unbelievable). Katniss and co. still had traps to evade and opponents to fight. Our hero worked toward the same goal she set in the beginning: Defy the Capitol.
I suppose I’m a fool for repetition. If I love the original book, I hope the sequel will provide the same joys. I don’t just want the story to continue, I want it to cycle. Or rather, to spiral—to move forward even as it repeats. But it’s a fine line a writer walks between reprising and repeating.
Do you enjoy sequels that repeat the original premise or do you prefer for the author to find new ground to cover? Which sequels do you feel have the perfect blend of old and new?
Parker Peevyhouse is a master maze-navigator
5 Comments on Sequels and the Art of Repetition, last added: 9/28/2010
All the buzz right now is about the latest book in a certain trilogy. Some of us on this site have written series or sequels. I wrote the Haunted series and Linda Joy Singleton’s work includes the Dead Girl and The Seer series. Joni Sensel’s The Farwalker’s Quest was recently followed by a sequel.
What author wouldn’t like to have a series, whether the original contract is for several books, or a single title is so popular that readers (and the editor) want a sequel? And what reader wouldn’t want to return to a favorite literary world?
And yet, series can be a hard sell. Some publishers of course focus on series, typically the direct to paperback, open-ended type. I sold Haunted (about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV show, for ages 8 to 12) based on a first manuscript, series proposal, and outlines for books 2 and 3, to Aladdin, a paperback series publisher. But most publishers want to see how a first book does before they request a sequel.
“Characters that carry over a number of books certainly work well, but this isn’t the same thing as a series,” a former Llewellyn Acquisitions Editor said in an interview. “I’d rather see a strong standalone with sequel potential. If a single title works and the main character isn’t too old, it’s rarely a problem to continue the story into a new book, if there’s interest.”
Another editor commented, “I wonder how many trilogies or series were conceived as such—and how many began as one-offs that performed well and/or became bestsellers, at which point authors are often encouraged to write a follow-up.”
I wonder as well. As a writer, perhaps the best thing you can do is to bring your first book to a satisfactory conclusion, but leave the sense that the characters will go on to have other adventures — and wouldn’t it be nice to read about those?
This is also comforting for the author, who doesn’t feel as much like she’s abandoning her characters forever. (I ended my historical fiction novel The Well of Sacrifice with the characters heading off to a new Mayan city. I imagined their adventures, though I never wrote a sequel. Some teachers who use the book in the classroom have students write about what happens next.) This is a bit different from “And they lived happily ever after” — unless you believe that happily ever after would involve new challenges and adventures!
As readers — or writers — do you like to feel that a book is complete and self-contained, with no questions or concerns left for the characters? Or do you prefer an ambiguous ending that suggests challenges ahead? Something in between?
The Well of Sacrifice is a drama set in 9th-century Mayan Guatemala.
Chris Eboch likes happy endings!
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 7/21/2010
By: Anastasia Goodstein,
on 11/30/2009
Today's Ypulse Youth Advisory Board post is from Northwestern journalism student and new member Amber Gibson on her frustrations with the endless saga of sequels coming out of Hollywood.
As always, you can communicate directly with any member of the... Read the rest of this post
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By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 10/2/2009
I heard on NPR this morning there is a new sequel to AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh books. Let me start by saying the author, David Benedictus, has done his homework. He's spent considerable time researching Milne's life, picking apart the Pooh stories, and even visiting the original hundred acre wood. He has taken great care to write in the voice of Milne, keeping the characters true to his vision.
Let me also say I have read other sequels created by other authors: Alexandra Ripley's Scarlett and one of the many Rebecca spin-offs, to name a few. Each of these I was able to read as an observer, appreciating some new insight but ultimately keeping my allegiance to the real Scarlett O'Hara or Mrs. DeWinter.
But Pooh Bear?
Pooh is a sacred part of childhood. That last chapter in The House at Pooh Corner (a gut-wrenching read aloud) shows that as bittersweet as it is, Christopher Robin is growing up. He can't come back as he has before. His relationship with his stuffed friends is different now.
I appreciate the author's intention to stay true to Milne's characters and even his statement that not everyone will want new Pooh. And in reading through this, I can see what an utter goofball I must appear to be, seeing any alteration to particular characters as a personal affront. I just can't help it. Characters from childhood are special. As well-intentioned as Mr. Benedictus's good words might be, I can't add to the stories I grew up with.
What do you think?
By: Kara Schaff Dean,
on 9/23/2009
Dear Mr. Gutman,As I sit here, with the sun setting on the 2009 baseball season, hanging around and waiting for the Red Sox to clinch a postseason berth (magic number currently stands at 6,) my mind is wandering (it's not a very interesting game.) I have been following the adventures of Joe Stoshack since Honus, straight through to Ray, with various degrees of interest. I keep coming back to the
By: Roger Sutton,
on 9/16/2009
I've got the new Dan Brown (audiobook edition) for our flight this weekend to meet the grandchild. Can't wait for either! Child_lit has been discussing how books perceived as page turners (like The Hunger Games) don't get the respect they should, but I figure there's page-turners and then there's page-browsers--James Patterson, I'm looking at you.
What I think I like most about Dan Brown is the opportunity he gives me to go around correcting everyone's use of the term factoid to mean a small, arcane, interesting fact. But Brown uses factoids in precisely the way coiner Norman Mailer intended: small, interesting, but completely made-up bullshit designed to look as if it were true.
From Presenting Lenore, we hear the first public viewing for The Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, will occur at BEA. Think those babies are going to be snatched up pretty quickly? Now how can I get one?
Melissa Marr’s hugely anticipated sequel (is this the right word for third in a series) Fragile Eternity has launched. Melissa is bringing us back to the story of Seth and Aislinn and Keenan. Me? I’m looking forward to it. And one great thing I love about reading books is being able to recommend them to others.
Do kids like speculative fiction? Check this list out before you answer. There are some amazing speculative fiction books on this year’s YALSA’s Teens’ Top Ten Nominations list.
Stardate 05.07.09 - Need I say more? 
And finally, the stuff science fiction was born from. Is Gliese 581 d or e the next Earth?
PJ Hoover is ready for other planets to be colonized.
Posted in P. J. Hoover Tagged: books, news, planets, sequels
8 Comments on Jill's Most Anticipated Books in 2011, last added: 2/5/2011
I thought for years – years! – that our edition of Stuart Little was missing the last few chapters. When I finally borrowed a different edition from the library, only to find it ended in the same place, and that was, in fact, where the book finished … well, I was never read it again, and I am an avid re-reader. So yeah, I’m all for a sequel for this one.
Also for The Secret Garden! Mostly because I adore Mary and Dickon and loathe Colin down to my very toes, and want SOMETHING that will do away with the awful, awful idea that Colin and Mary end up marrying. UGH. NO.
I can’t blame Hallmark Mary…if Colin turned into Colin Firth, I’d marry him too.
I’d say pretty much any Roald Dahl book (James & the Giant Peach, The Witches, The BFG), but I’ve read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, so I’d quickly take that back.
I also kind of feel that way about a bunch of KD books. Despereaux, Edward Tulane.
But now I’m very concerned about the Great Glass Elevator effect. This begs the question, how many sequels are out there would have been better off not written?
For what it’s worth, I suspect that someone write a middle grade novel called THE GREAT GLASS ELEVATOR EFFECT because that just screams for a complex narrative. In the meantime, I want to steal your idea for a Bad Sequel post. LOVE that idea.
feel free to steal my idea. i’m officially looking the other way between 12 and 1 while i eat lunch and read Purplicious.
I would agree that it might’ve been better off not being written, except that I love the name Vermicious K’nids.
Someone DID write a sequel to The Secret Garden. Made the mistake of reading it as a teen. Horrible.
Hey–are we sure we want to know what happens to these people? Didn’t you post just the other day that Pippi Longstocking grew up to become The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo?
Watchman is the rough draft of Mockingbird, not the sequel. In the rough draft of Gone with the Wind, Scarlet was originally named Pansy.
It so happens the Hallmark Colin was played by my 7th student of the time, Jadrien Steele. He came back from the filming in England telling us fabulous stories about the animals, Derek Jacobi, Colin Firth (indeed:), and others.
I adored the recent Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders, “Inspired by E. Nesbit’s Five Children and it Stories”. It won the UK Costa Award and is currently longlisted for the Guardian prize. My thoughts here: https://medinger.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/kate-saunders-five-children-on-the-western-front/
And if you want schlock sequels, look no farther than all three Stuart Little movies.
Hmmm. Excellent point that.
Indeed. At this point we get into authorial intent vs. public perception. It was written as a rough draft. It has been received as a sequel. So where does the author’s intentions (and here we could get into a HUGE debate about whether or not Harper Lee ever meant this to see the light of day) end and the public’s expectations begin?
Okay. You are officially blowing my mind now. Gonna go join Josh Funk in his reading of Purplicious to clear my brain for a bit.
EXCELLENT POINT!!! And a better received novel of recent years I can hardly think of. Wonder if it’ll ever come to the States.
I missed that post, Elizabeth, but I’d love to see you expand on that–how about gathering up other kid lit characters and figuring out who they grew up to be? Fun, no?
Fun yes! Good post material. Thanks!