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Interesting. As an adult I want my male protagonists to be capable and proactive. Will not read a book that describes protagonist as needy, angst-y or searching.
Enjoy your blog.

Italians often have record players but use them mainly for opera. Occasionally they will listen to other musical forms native to their region, but they are reluctant to listen to instructional recordings.

I do -- party at my house! But check your knitting books and salamis at the door.

Why not give these books and LPs to Simmons or Harvard for their rare book collections? They would be of interest for the change in interpretation of children's literature over time.

We are really going to town on this blog entry at my office, where we do occasionally have our own mildly embarrassing conversations, such as "If we only put a girl on the cover most boys won't read it" or "how do we keep this from looking *too* historical?"

Anyway, our editorial assistant, Alison, is a Sleepy Hollow native who also happens to be a young Jewish woman of German and Czech descent. As submissions came in late this afternoon we cheerfully called out "Here's another serious biographical craft book for Alison!"

By the way, if my colleague Regina Griffin and I ever write a book on "Why Children Read" for the ALA, we will be sure to title our chapter on romance for teens "It's All About the Yearning."

Those passages are similar to some I'm using in my dissertation, which focuses on literacy programs for immigrants in libraries during the teens and '20s. Here are links to a couple about gender and reading that I posted a while back. Post 1 and Post 2

In my research notes I have quite a few about ethnicity and supposed reading preferences - I just haven't gotten around to posting any of them yet. The will be in the dissertation. :-D
Post 2

I'm guessing that the last line "native American" doesn't mean American Indian.

And, FYI, I blogged again today about AMERICAN GIRL. Found a review of one of the stage shows. Gross.

Dear Roger,

I love you.

Anonymous

Stop, Jon! You're embarrassing me.

I can't believe you want to be identified with Gallant! You're a "Your Own Pages" all the way.

Another Anonymous

Goofus and Gallant always makes me think of childhood trips to the dentist office -- reading Highlights while waiting to meet my doom.

Gallant may have been the "better" boy, but don't you think he also got beat up more on the playground?

Barbara Kerley

I do, and I was. And I totally blame Jon.

I'll meet you by the monkeybars right after school.

Of course, when runescape gold comes to pot, you can have too much of runescape money.

I notice that the Library of Congress (where I work) cataloged both the British edition (published in 2007) and the U.S. edition (published in 2008) as adult novels. Do you know if the title has ended up in any YA collections?

Lyle Blake Smythers

It was definitely published for adults, Lyle, but has a probably unintended boyishness to it I think kids would respond to. As a grownup reader, I was occasionally embarrassed by the plaintive earnestness of the writing but I kept thinking that as a fifteen-year-old I would have LOVED this book.

The disconnect between the book/audience you describe and the cover image could hardly be greater. The book looks it's about... tea?

Worse: it looks like it's about the memory of tea.

"Darjeeling Dawns," the looked for sequel to "Ceylon Evenings," coming this fall.

And the question I hate to ask but must, how hard do you think it is? (My boys who would like it are not the strongest readers necessarily.)

You might need to booktalk someone through the opening section, set in the present day and narrated by an old man about his present circumstances. Tell 'em it's worth it. It's not a book for "reluctant readers," but eighth-graders on up who like a challenge could get into it.

An old lady who's a martial artist--I'm so there!

this so reminds me. when i was at ut - university of texas at austin - i finally managed a front page story in the weekly magazine that the DAily Texan puts out. when I was riding home on the shuttle bus, I saw a student get on, sit next to me, flip open the newspaper to my story, start to read.
this one part of me was saying shut up, shut up, just watch.
the reader kept reading, and laughing
in parts, and this other part of me wanted to poke him and say,
so what part did you think was funny?
Surreal moment, but I think it's one of those things that writers everywhere get to go through if they are lucky.

Anecdotally, from my classroom: Kids who are already readers will read any book in which they can find themselves or the ideas that interest them. But kids who aren't readers yet are much, much more likely to begin finding pleasure in (in our case) a story about a black city kid trying to grow up well than anywhere else.

No matter how many times I watch it happen it never fails to take my breath away, that several-week sequence by which a formerly reluctant reader loves one book and then a second and then a series and then, with bemused delight, the act of reading.

Maybe they wouldn't know to seek these books out on their own -- but for those of us who spend all day walking backwards and gesticulating down the path to readerliness, books that make finding yourself easy matter a great deal.

Specifically, and for example: The novel KENDRA, by Coe Booth, has magic power in my school. I have never ever ever had a child start and not finish it. It came out something like a year ago and it's been the First Book I Really Loved for at least a dozen newly minted readers.

Lelac,

I didn't comment on the post because I am feeling discouraged and very like a troll today. Your comment is a much appreciated pick-me-up. I wanted to say thank you.

That is indeed heartening, and Coe Booth is one of the most exciting writers to come on the scene in recent years.

Roger,

You stated: "I'm not sure that translates to wanting to read books "about people like me." It's more about being able to see yourself in circumstances unlike your own."

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree.

But the problem, if I can put in my two cents as a mom and reading addict, is that when the books are so overwhelmingly one sided in terms of their depiction of race, the kids get the subtle message "not you."

"You" can't be a prince or princess. "All" great fairytales and lores are European. You'll never have an epic adventure. And - if you look at some of the bestselling books - you won't be in the "inner circle."

Some -- perhaps many -- children need to see their experiences addressed in books but I'm I see a broader need. Books that feature children of color (all colors) doing ordinary and extraordinary things not tied to their race or some tired stereotype.

So the question I ask is why is the "default" position always "white child as hero?"

Years ago a wonderful editor pulled me aside at a national writing conference and told me what the score really was. That was 2000 - and not much has changed since then. Sigh. African American, Asian and Latino authors still get push back when they try to write outside of a narrow boundary.

There was once a great call from parents, teacher and librarians for more books about the "Black experience". Kudos - but in some perverse way that has lead to an over saturation of civil rights, slavery, ghetto and poverty stories, enhanced with a smattering of jazz and a rare middle class kid. It's the sameness of it all that leaves my kids screaming away and towards "mainstream" books and "translating."

Books serve multiple purposes - escapism but also clues to what goes on in a broader world. For every kid who wants to see "themselves" in a "realistic" situation, I'll show you 3 others who read those books only because a teacher required it, but are reading non-required texts on the school ride home - for instance - the Black Panther comic book series where the lead is African American, king of a mythical African country, and has a multicultural cast of friends.

So let me put my marketing hat on - Everywhere I go I get pleas from teachers about the need for a broader selection of books depicting people of color. But if publishing - and sales and marketing in particular - believe that those books have no profitability - they don't get published. That's a lot of money left on the table.

And if a publisher puts a book out and then buries it (no marketing or co-op dollars) then a public - already trained not to look for such titles - doesn't. To which sales and marketing proclaims "See - no market for them."

Catch 22 - can't buy what is hard to find (even if in print).

Until then, my kids are stuck with clumsy loner and her impossibly beautiful, dazzling pale white love interest, a orphaned wizard and all the other trade books that make their own needs and desires invisible (unless they translate).

Bella's problems aren't because she's white - it's because she's Bella. So why, if publishing turned Bella into an ethnic girl, would that suddenly make the book unmarketable or - worse - a "ethnic interest" book - which is considered the kiss of death for a book?

Publishing strikes me as wholly inefficient because the decision makers spend a lot of time pleasing adults in the system and next to no time getting intimate with the very population we ultimately claim to write and publish for.

What other industry works that way and succeeds?

"Although I do believe that readers, at least in part, read for "the shock of recognition" Richard Peck talks about, I'm not sure that translates to wanting to read books "about people like me." It's more about being able to see yourself in circumstances unlike your own."

Yes, though I think it's often both ideas working at the same time, and not in contradiction; it's about wanting to see how someone you can recognize as in some ways like yourself handles a situation you don't recognize.

I love Booth's novel and I always enjoy introducing customers to her books.

Though I believe the fact that Booth's name always seems to come up when there's talk about the lack of Color within children's and YA books, proves one of the points Zetta was making.

As much as I enjoy Booth's writing when this discussion comes up again I would loved to see more authors of color mentioned. Including Booth of course. I would simply like to see more authors of color recognized

I love and agree with everything Christine said.

"Catch 22 - can't buy what is hard to find (even if in print)."

I loved Charles R. Smith Jr's O8 YA release Chameleon. Set in 80's featuring four Black male protagonists. Its their summer before freshman year. Its one of the best YA novels, no one talks about, no one knows about, so no one can buy

Zetta's post, and the responses to this post on Hornbook, focus on the publishing industry. As usual, I would just like to point out that the publishing industry is still hog-tied by Barnes & Noble. But the resurgent growth of independent bookselling can shift this power balance, providing outlets for a wider variety of literature.

We independent children's booksellers are quite concerned to carry a robust, diverse selection--it's a critical competitive opportunity for us, since our key customers are teachers. There used to be 400 of us nationwide and now there are about 100. But we're headed into a baby boom in this country, and I feel confident that more indie children's bookstores will be opening in coming years. They can help break this logjam by proving to publishers there's a channel to distribute more diverse titles.

I also agree with Christine. I think that genre fiction, especially, needs to get over the white-default thing. I think that there are plenty of kids, as Roger points out, who are looking for books about kids in similar circumstances. But I became a genre reader because I was *tired* of reading about kids in my circumstance.

Most of the YA available to me when I was a teen were problem novels: abused kids, kids from divorced homes, etc. etc. I was a child of divorce in an abusive home, and I wanted something *different* from my circumstances to read about. Reading The Chocolate War was sheer torture to me as a high school freshman, for example--it was so utterly hopeless and depressing. I wanted something adventurous, magical, hopeful. Something transcending my own circumstances (which were nothing like that in The Chocolate War, either, so perhaps that undermines my point).

I'm positive that there are kids of all races that feel this same way, who want to see themselves in extraordinary circumstances--to be able to see themselves in a Harry Potter or a Bella--and I think that fantasy can and should be able to do that for them.

I went to the bookstore earlier today, and I was on the hunt for fantasy featuring characters of color. I'm happy to say I found more this visit than I've been able to find before, and I think it's getting better. But it's only in small increments.

(It probably also doesn't help that I'm going to a bookstore in the middle of Utah, one of the whitest places in North America, yet even here I walk through the bookstore and see Latinos and Asians and Middle Easterners and it seems to me that it's also partly the assumptions of booksellers and librarians about the communities they serve--even the whitest places in North America have a significant number of people of color shopping in those bookstores and frequenting the libraries, so it seems to me those kids should be able to feel like they can walk into a bookstore and find books featuring people like themselves, too. This is like Christine's Catch 22--I hear from local book people that their audience is "mostly people like [me]" yet it makes me wonder if that's because what gets ordered to be sold in the shops are books tailored for white Mormons.)

So while I know there are many kids out there looking for similarities in circumstances, there are just as many or more kids looking for different circumstances, and I think that's part of the appeal of speculative fiction. Even realistic problem novels, though, tend to attract as many readers who aren't in those circumstances who are looking to read about extraordinary-to-them circumstances.

So I think both sides of the coin are right--it's *both* the similarities and differences that draw us to read, depending on the interests and desires of the reader at any given moment.

This also ties into how afraid publishers are about printing covers with a black person, or indeed a person of any ethnicity, on the cover. Remember that debacle about LeGuin's book Powers, and Liar by ... oh drat, I can't remember her name. But both books had protagonists with brown skin, and the early covers used a white person. Insane!

Not to mention that I think it helps against racism if more whites see more races. I grew up in a lily-white town, and when I was a kid we took a trip to Mississippi, where I was suddenly surrounded by blacks. I became even shyer than usual, more deferential, going down the road nodding my head to every black person I saw. Yeah, I was kind of a goof.
My daughter's generation is far more multi-racial than mine, even in my old elementary school, which helps. But whites need to keep re-examining our own attitudes and keep learning. This goes for literature especially.

I believe that young readers (including teenagers) read to get a handle on who they are. They read to see what the characters in books do in challenging circumstances, and then ask themselves whether they would do the same thing, or something different. Kids and teens who already love to read willingly read about characters like themselves and unlike themselves, making friends with the characters and then approving or disapproving of their decisions at the climax. With each critical evaluation, they are shaping the person they are growing into.

But kids who are not willing readers find it harder to submerge themselves in the world of a book, any book, until they find a doorway inviting them in. They want to find a friend in the book's cast of characters, and they want to measure their own feelings and judgment against that character's, but difficulties in the act of reading, and a story situation that they can't imagine themselves into, can throw up barriers. If the book makes its world welcoming to less willing readers, perhaps they will put in the extra effort to read it, and once they discover the thrill of vicariously sharing the main character's journey, they'll be more willing to try the next book and the next - until they're stretching to read books about characters very different from themselves, and feeling confident about evaluating those characters' decisions in terms of what they as readers would do.

To my mind, books that reflect the worlds of unwilling readers aren't the end of the publishing and librarian's journey to create more readers - they're the beginning of the reader's journey to discover the power of a book to show them themselves.

Brilliant and good comments, too. Thanks for sharing.

As someone who was once looking for that very same doorway - I worry that will only encourage publishers to continue feeding into a market over saturated with a one-size-fits-all view of ethnicity. This is not a mutually exclusive argument - if you have "B" you can no longer have "A".

Why does every "doorway" have to lead to a slave ship, a plantation, a treeless brownstone lined street, a missing parent, a welfare check, or a civil rights icon with a smattering of jazz, and a live-in grandmother complete with quilt thrown in for happiness.

I grew up disadvantaged in an impoverished urban area and those books still don't describe anything remotely like my life. Those were books I ran away from - too oppressive even with their happy endings. I didn't want to read about someone's fictitious version of "my life." I wanted to test roles that occurred outside of it.

Why don't those books sell well? Because, outside of a school or library, consumers don't want them and our kids won't read them. They certainly aren't clamoring for them at book fairs. And when I'm doing school visits the kids don't want to talk about them. I sometimes do a reading from books selected by the school (almost always mundane or civil rights) - then I sneak in MASTER MAN and NANTA'S LION to much better results)

Kids need the space to create their own heros in their own ways. Instead we keep feeding them bland leftovers from our own angst filled pasts.

Not all reluctant readers are born that way - sometimes, by the lack of options - we create them.

My thinking isn't that I'm looking for me (or my children) to be reflected in the books I read. Rather, it's the opposite. I want my children exposed to different families, ethnicities, religions, etc. which is why I seek out these books for my child and myself.

Since the time marketing and sales took over the power place of editorial and art, the business has been slowly sinking into the mindset of the status quo oriented. I was once blamed by the publisher in front of the editors that my book wasn't selling. This was many years ago. Now I am more savvy. I'd say "Where's your marketing dept? That's *their* job, not mine". Marketing and sales want the creatives to do their jobs (for free) while they get away with book murder and a salary. They have all the control and they know it. AND are not that great at their jobs or there would be no need for this discussion. Too many of them are yakking it up on Facebook when they should be out selling our books.

I grow positively orc-like when people point the finger at the marketing department-- like they have some sort of magic marketing bullet they are selfishly refusing to fire. Sure--because they have this amazing track record for making all the very best books also the very best sellers. Not.

Why do I picture anon 8:16 and anon 12:13 commenting from adjoining cubicles like Dwight and Jim?

This is such a rich area for contemplation and debate that I am only going to attempt to chew off a tiny piece of it here. Or maybe two pieces.

Anonymous 8:16, I really enjoyed your rant! Though since I may well be the industry's #1 time waster on facebook (and am by your definition, one of the "creatives") I can't say I agree with it. Though I do agree that the question of how much influence sales and marketing has on what gets published is a very interesting one.

I wanted to say something to Christine's first comment, above. I no longer agree that it's true, as it may well have been in 2000, that "African American, Asian and Latino authors still get push back when they try to write outside of a narrow boundary." Au contraire. I am a bit sorry to sound so tactical, but most editors and publishers are thrilled to get Latino and African American writers on their lists who write about "non urban, non poor" subjects. We do want "regular" books about "regular" kids and families by writers and artists of all enthnicities. I promise you.

But we can't solve the problem by simply changing the skin color on a picture book character or by making a white character black. I will tell you that I have had both suggested to me by bosses at previous jobs, and I shuddered. Bella Swan is white because, I assert, that's what the author knew (she lives in Utah!) and that was the character who came to her--built out of her own subconscious. Some writers can convincingly write multiple enthnicities, and some cannot.

I think two things are going to be positive forces for change in this area. I follow a lot of teenagers' blogs and twitter accounts, and I spend a lot of time in the YA section of stores. I see a lot of African American and Latino kids blogging about and reading and buying books, and they are about to become our new generation of writers.

Also, I published a fantasy about an African American hero when I was at Simon and Schuster, and it was by an African American author. It sold ok. But when the business has a big hit with a paranormal romance or fantasy and the protagonist is African American or Latino, you can bet we'll see a lot more of those lead characters. I'm sorry that that's the way things work, but everybody loves to jump on a successful bandwagon.

I think the goal is to publish a list of books that, hopefully, speaks to lots of different children about things they recognize and some things they don't. And then blow the horn for those books as loud as we can.

back in the day there WERE the kind of books we now miss - e.g. HIS OWN WHERE, by June Jordan, and some publishers welcomed them. but now sociology seems to have taken over (more grant-worthy? easier to catalog?) and we complain of what the institutions have given us

I posted basically this comment earlier, on another blog, but since it seems on point I'll work up the idea again here:

I heard an interview on Fresh Air with Robert Siegel, the director of Big Fan. He talked about the importance of casting. He felt that the studio approach — of which he was critical — was not to find the right actor for the part, but to find the most bankable star who wouldn’t be totally crushingly wrong for the part.

That struck me as relevant to publishing. Publishers, authors, illustrators, often look for the character that will be most easily identified with by the largest possible swath of the book-buying public, who won’t be totally wrong for the book. Simple demographics state that that character is usually white; of a vague ethnic background; of no discernible religious tradition or habits (unless he/she observes a secularized holiday); and the kid doesn't live anywhere in particular, either, with the possible exception of New York. Preferably Brooklyn.

Of course, there are some books in which the subject demands a Jewish protagonist, or an African-American protagonist, or Latino, and so on — books that deal with experiences unique to those peoples. So books with Jewish characters skew toward the Holocaust, and books with blacks skew toward slavery and civil rights, and so on.

I’m not saying that racism, subtle and otherwise, isn’t alive and well. But this other simple yet subtle dynamic does a lot to give us the publishing world we have, I think.

Elizabeth - we need to talk. YOU do have authors of color on your list and I've never found you lacking in candor.

However, publishing in general is not as even tempered as you may suggest. The problem has gotten so bad that we had to form an organization for authors of color (mostly published) so we could compare notes in private.

Trust me when I say I am speaking from the experiences of many - some of whom are now publishing under pseudonyms to get past the problem.

I'll send you a dm on twitter.

btw - thank you for that stance about changing color - a lot of us are in agreement with you. Bella wouldn't work as a black girl (frankly - my daughters devoured the series despite constantly screaming she was too stupid to live.) The point of many authors is not to change the skin color and keep every other element the same, but to allow a character to be someone of color and have their ethnicity be relevant without it being the source of the "problem."

Does that make sense?

Girls. On their way to World Domination.

I'm curious about how they "purposely marketed the survey to attract male readers." Boys' bathroom stalls? What's the online equivalent?

I don't think there is one, Elissa. Hence, the 96%. I wish the ambassador would show up because I am very curious about the success of Guys LIt Wire. Do they have any males of the species? Or is it also used primarily by girls who like the boy books? Maybe you could page Colleen Mondor, Roger.

Anon 12:07

maybe it's just that ADULTS (esp. female adults) are reading children's\YA books now? general decline in adult intelligence

Maybe THAT wil bring the swarm off of Betsy!

My talisman is a rhino, and it would be SOOOooo cool if Jerry Pinkney would feature one in a book as wonderful as The Lion & The Mouse!

A ladybug due to 9/11. Long story involving my class coping back then in NYC, good luck, Swiss chocolate, etc etc.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't read The Lion & The Mouse yet (I will! I will!), but...

it's funny that the book features the same title as a New Yorker article about the relationship between Anne Carroll Moore and E.B. White.

Hidden allegory? Of course not, but... am I the only person who thinks that would be fun? Like, REALLY fun?

Well, in Jonathan's defense, he writes about "young adult literature"; it's just the headline that reads "best young adult fiction", so unless he wrote the head, it was someone else's fail. And I think middle-grade is pretty much a professional term used by librarians and booksellers and such. To much of the general public there are "kids' books" (picture books) and "young adult".

What are you implying?

Implication is far too subtle for the likes of me.

I am reminded of the scene in the beginning of one of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries (I think GAMBIT), in which he is ripping pages out of his recently purchased third edition of Webster's Unabridged and feeding them to the flames in his fireplace. He speaks to a potential client:

"Do you use 'infer' and 'imply' interchangeably?"

She did fine. [Archie, narrating, tells us] "No."

"This book says that you may."

Archie goes on to tell the new client that Wolfe once burned a cookbook because it said to remove the skin from a ham before putting it into the pot with the lima beans.

Lyle Blake Smythers

I'm not sure why the lead reads Best YA Fiction instead of Best YA Literature. We certainly discussed this and you'll note the introduction reflects this. Since this is the only list NPR will be doing for younger readers, we wanted a range of titles for teens *and* tweens, as the introduction also acknowledges.

Jonathan

It's true, as Wendy says, the the public seems to think YA fiction is 9 or 10 and up. What I find more troubling is publishing's neglect of true middle-grade fiction, of which When You Get Here (joke) is such a terrific exemplar.

Nancy Pearl has an NPR list up that includes LIAR, GOING BOVINE, WHEN YOU REACH ME, and BUBBLE TROUBLE.

Jonathan

Yes, but it is EEEEvil and it's illustrations are in the wrong places and none of it's links to excerpts seem to work!

Thank you for this - we will fix it for paperback, scheduled for 5/10. The world needs close readers.
- Amy Sohn

You are so right about the value of reading and how they affect the whole child. I encourage every new parent I meet to read to their child.

You could send your brochure to the schools that stock your books in their library and they could give it to kindergarten parents and new to the school parents each year. :)

Roger, that was a terrific essay on "Annie on My Mind." Thanks so much for making it available online. I'm looking forward to reading the entire issue.

Just read the interview with Jon Scieszka, and it's great. "Can we say this in the Horn Book?" Yes, Jon, I believe you did.

Is there more in the podcast than in the printed interview, juicy outtakes and mumbled asides?

I shoulda been more clear: the podcast conversation is completely different from the printed interview. We talked for a long time!

Have faith! I have two boys, 12 & 15 who are both AVID readers. True, we limit the electronic diversions some, but even before they hit the age of Nintendo, they enjoyed books and in spite of Mario, they still do.

Absolutely agreee with your comments about education -- why do some parents feel it's not their job? And, yes -- have faith! My two boys, 8 and 10, are avid readers, too. They have limits on electronic passtimes, but both love to read and I'm sure it's because we live in a house full of books.

Awww. How sweet.

We have a similar rocker that we've been rocking our daughter in for five years. It's kinda worn out...but she loves it.

And she does love to read. So I wonder, is it a gender thing? I don't know. I have one brother who loves books and music and another who loves TV and the Internet.

Let's hope it has more to do with parental influence, than anything else! In which case, I'm sure your son will be all set.

Congratulations to Jon, it's a great appointment, and I really enjoyed your interview with Jon, Roger. But his last name does not rhyme with n'est-ce pas, it rhymes with Fresca.

Ohhh, this is so cool. Maps! Transit! Transit maps! Love, love, love...

I did some pretty serious nerding out at the London Transport Museum a few years ago, where they have a display on how the subway map came to be.

And where would Tolkien be today without Those Maps (drawn by his son, I believe)? Maps are great. Right up there with cutaways. See also Edward Tufte's map to end all maps ("Probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn") up at his web site (under posters).

YES to subway maps, and DOUBLE YES to Edward Tufte's map of the march on Russia. The most wonderfully compressed and explicit chart ever made! (and I am an elderly female, not teenage boy!)

Yes, maps, schedules, lists, and facts about places are the stuff. I had great fun incorporating all these into my book MVP: Magellan Voyage Project about a twelve-year-old boy is challenged to circle the world in forty days. Since the books publication, however, I've been confounded by the number of mothers who have e-mailed and scolded me for the alibi I give Adam so he can take the adventure--lying to his mother that he's at summer soccer camp. How else can a modern-day boy take an adventure without some deceit?

I glimpsed this at the Newton Free Library in the hands of a shy young man, asked him about it, and his face lit up. He must have spent fifteen minutes raving about his favorite systems as we flipped through the pages together, and I was hooked. The Tokyo subway map made my head spin as I remembered getting lost in that city, and the changing face of BART maps over the decades made me miss my City by the Bay. A great read for all map-lovers, and the perfect gift for that twenty-something headed to Europe with her grungy backpack.

wow. now i am even more convinced that i am male (for some value thereof).

I'm a girl, and I took one look at that and went, "OOOOOHHHH..." Trains. Maps. Yes.

Here's another damnable thing. When it comes to reading, girls can like anything, because reading is so girly to begin with. But if I had let anyone know of my love as an eight-year-old for Rumer Godden's Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, I wouldn't be here today.

You could have just said that you loved the appendices--diagrams of house building! (I did love that book, mostly for the story, but the reason I still own it today is because of the appendices).

--Sarah

Yes, girls can cross-dress and cross-read. I'm sorry that you were once pressed to secret reading, Roger, but given the hints of blame I sometimes feel aimed at women teachers/librarians/editors in recent guys need charts/facts/comics/statistics discussions, I have to note that it's guys who were threats to reading freedom. I've met teachers who have happily enabled third grade guys to dress up as Laura Ingalls Wilder for Biography Day and many more who are really really happy when anyone reads anything. --Jeannine Atkins

I don't blame women, although it was my female teacher who led the laughter when I ordered Sterling's Mary Jane from the Scholastic Book Club in fourth grade. It's gendered expectations that are at fault, and their enforcers of whichever sex.


Thanks, Anon., for reminding me of those diagrams in the Godden book--I did love them. So schematic! ;-)

As a public librarian, I feel that my biggest enemy when it comes to what guys read is their parents! I have to regularly explain to parents that nonfiction books are perfectly acceptable (awesome, in fact), and that if their sons are totally obsessed with one subject THAT IS OKAY. Reading is reading.

There's nothing new about the argument that women inhibit boys' reading. The issue was first raised in the 1920s when a group of men (mostly writers of boys' series fiction) were angry that Frederic Melcher entrusted the Newbery Medal to a bunch of spinster librarians.

In an attempt to counter the charge that they were ill-suited to choose fiction for boys, children's librarians aligned themselves with [a-hem] the Boy Scouts. It's interesting, too, that the first several Newbery Medals were awarded to "boys' books," almost as if to say, "See? We can do this!"

The argument recycles every twenty years or so, and, for some reason, always appears to be a fresh, new idea.

Avi had a brilliant two-part article in Horn Book back in the 1980s about the feminine values in children's literature, and why they are threatening to men. Any chance we could get this article in the Horn Book Archives online, Roger?

"...this book celebrates Facts, especially facts united by a theme but untied to any story save the one they allow me to tell myself."

Are you saying this is more a boy thing? Nonlinear books that allow readers to construct their own stories, that is.

I think I might be, Monica, but don't have anything to back it up. Readers will read anything, but non- or "reluctant-" readers can be persuaded by short bursts of text or story (think Choose Your Own Adventure or joke books) where a "regular book" might put them off.

I just put it on hold. Can't wait to get it!
Seeing this and reading these posts brought back memories. When I was a teenager, I would spend hours in my room looking at atlases. Oh how I loved the population statistics... and the beautiful maps!

Thanks for sharing this! It reminds me that riding the subway can be a really cool experience.

Likewise, thanks, this was great fun! I followed the link to the info about the author. There I discovered that he, his wife, and their sons have moved to Berlin, which I know from personal experience has a stupendous subway system. Maybe there will be a sequel in German some day soon!

If I spend my weekend looking through old BookScan reports, Roger, it's all your fault.

(My desire to procrastinate instead of writing? Totally unrelated.)

But what would you look for, Sarah? What does it mean to say that last year twenty works of nonfiction were published for boys? I wonder if they are getting that number by counting the number of books that have the subject heading "boys"--which is, of course, stupid. But there would be more of those last year than in 2003 because of all the copycat Dangerous Book for Boys things we've been seeing.

I know, it's ridiculous to even try... I assume they're also counting things like Oh, Yuck! as "books for boys," based on the tone of the article. But that would mean they had actually looked at the title - and maybe even the content - and I have a feeling you're right about searching by subject.

Hah! I just came up to check my e-mail and feeds as soon as I finished to the spirited discussion downstairs in the kitchen we had over this article. And by "spirited" I mean the following was said: "Oh no, is a journalist talking about children's literature? Somebody take the paper away from Deborah, quick!"

I like that the "new" trend in gross children's books ("New?" said a 35-year-old friend of mine. "I was reading RL Stine when I was a teenager.") is set up in opposition to those other books we all know are being pushed to middle schoolers: Little House on the Prairie. And of course, the only alternative voice suggests children read Jules Verne.

LOL!

"He can write about girls, of course, although I’m having a hard time coming up with the name of any male author in the young adult genre who has done this with more than one-off success."

Kevin Henkes is a guy who's written about girls very successfully and more than once, but I guess his books are on the MG/YA borderline. Though I would call Protecting Marie YA.

I read this piece yesterday all curled up beneath a blanket. Wonderfully done.

re Titling: Many MANY years ago when I was a journalist, I wrote a commissioned article about a psychologist who was teaching an wildly popular course on Human Sexuality at a local university.

I wanted to call it "If You Don't Know Your Vas from Your Elbow" but the editor said no.

Are you going to review Scat by Carl Hiaasen?

I agree, Roger. Your title was much better.

Scat is reviewed in the January 09 issue.

I've always impressed by Peter Abrahams' (of the "Echo Falls" series)ability to write a damn convincing teenage girl.

I have several MG story ideas for boys and I’ve interviewed the boys at my church, asking what they look for in writing so they will read. You know what they all say? “More dialouge, less description. We have good enough imaginations to see what’s going on around a character without being told every detail. Keep the characters talking because that keeps the story going.”

Straight from MG boys mouths!

When I was a boy, I never liked to read because the stories and books I started to read could never keep my attention or interest. There was always too much description, with too much detail. I wanted to create my own ideas of how some of the caracters looked like or how the scenery was, but all the details destroyed my imagination and didn’t allow me to interact wih the story.
When my daughter turned three, she asked me to tell her stories, which led to writing my own books. When I saw an agent, she told me that my books have too much dialouge and not enough description and detail, luckily, I didn’t listen to her. The boys who have read my books really like them and have given me lots of positive feedback. I guess, the choise is with the reader.
Thank you.
Oliver Neubert

Madison, that’s a fantastic nugget of information. Thank you for sharing it. It’s something I like, myself, in books–more dialogue, and definitely less description!

Oliver, it’s good to keep hold of what worked for you in books you yourself read–I think that helps a lot in writing.