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This is the best advice I have ever read for survivors of sexual assault. It is for everyone who has struggled to come to terms what happened and everyone who loves them. That means everyone needs to read it.

Pretty in Pink meets Anna and the French Kiss in this charming romantic comedy.

Ella is nearly invisible at the Willing School, and that's just fine by her. She's got her friends - the fabulous Frankie and their sweet cohort Sadie. She's got her art - and her idol, the unappreciated 19th-century painter Edward Willing. Still, it's hard being a nobody and having a crush on the biggest somebody in the school: Alex Bainbridge. Especially when he is your French tutor, and lessons have started becoming, well, certainly more interesting than French ever has been before. But can the invisible girl actually end up with a happily ever after with the golden boy, when no one even knows they're dating? And is Ella going to dare to be that girl?

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Benji @ The Non Reluctant Reader said, on 1/22/2012 5:26:00 PM

Very jealous, I can't wait to read this one!

Julianna Helms said, on 1/22/2012 5:26:00 PM

Awesome review! :D I shamefully admit that I was a bit disappointed that the shirt-removing scene was only to show a scar.

kimba88 said, on 1/22/2012 5:26:00 PM

This looks cute. I like a witty novel with characters you can connect too. Great review :)

melannie (: said, on 1/22/2012 9:09:00 PM

I really loved this one too. Especially Alex, I loved his guts and personality ;) have to admit I was a bit turn off by all the mentions of Frankie's relationships too :/

but the whole book is just soo witty and sparkly I just ended up loving it.

Cialina at Muggle-Born.net said, on 1/22/2012 10:50:00 PM

Ooooh, this sounds adorable and exactly what I'd like to pick up. :)

Francis said, on 1/26/2012 2:10:00 AM

There is nothing to say against people who are gay. But I think, personally, that many books and films just use this subject in order to "shock" or involve people more. And I do not feel this is appropriate every time.

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By: Kristi Helvig, on 9/28/2010
Blog: The Black Quill (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Laurie Halse Anderson, kristi, speak, rape, Add a tag

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By: Laurie Halse Anderson, on 10/3/2010
Blog: Mad Woman in the Forest (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  teachers, censorship, speak, america, twisted, Add a tag

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By: Stacy A. Nyikos, on 10/5/2010
Blog: Stacy A. Nyikos (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  P.J. Hoover, bulimia, Speak, Kansas School Librarians Conference, Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls, Suzanne Morgan Williams, Zu Vincent, John Irving, Barrie Summy, anorexia, rape, Add a tag

Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
Young Adult

and

Wintergirls
Laurie Halse Anderson
Young Adult

I read both of these books back to back and did not give up on life entirely, which speaks highly to Anderson's talent as a writer. These are not easy reads. Speak, celebrating its 10th anniversary in print, is about rape. Think that's edgy? Wintergirls is about bulimia and anorexia. This is tough stuff. Anderson does a fabulous job with protraying real, troubled teens. For any girl who has been through rape or is battling an eating disorder, these pieces must feel empowering because they let the individual know, you are not alone.

The reason I review them together is because, despite Anderson's skill at real, gritty portrayal of these issues through a teen character, after finishing the books, I was left feeling much like I had after a spree of John Irving books in my early twenties, i.e. like the main characters were the same person over and over. Lia of Wintergirls, birthed ten years after Melinda of Speak, nonetheless feels like the same teen. Anderson's writing chops are much improved, although the symbolism in Speak is incredible, the writing in Wintergirls will leave you rereading again and again to pick up craft points, turns of phrase, ideas on how to take mental illness and make it real for readers. Still, Melinda and Lia are interchangeable.

Why?

Their voice feels very similar. Their reactions, similar. Lia feels like a more mature Melinda, going further in her personal psychosis, more unstable, more suicidal, more detached. Yet still, Melinda.

Which leads me to ask the following questions: What results in similar characters across novels by the same author? Can we authors only get so far from our own perception? Are we slaves to our own hermeneutics? Or do similar driving motives across different stories nevertheless lead to similar characters?

I am not sure what the answers are, but I would like to know more because I find myself falling into that pattern in a present novel. Certain secondary characters feel similar to ones in an earlier novel I wrote. How do I avoid that? Should I? Or does such similarity define an author much as a defining brushstroke can define a painter?

Food for thought.

For more great reads, hop over to our fearless leader, Barrie Summy's blog.  And for those of you in the Kansas area, if you get a chance, stop by the Kansas School Librarians Conference Thursday and Friday of this week. Barrie Summy, P.J. Hoover, Zu Vincent, Suzanne Morgan Williams, and I are the guest speakers for lunch on Thursday. It's a whole panel of characters just waiting to share!

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By: Kristi Helvig, on 10/5/2010
Blog: The Black Quill (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  kristi, speak, Snooki seriously has a book deal I'm not even kidding, Add a tag

I wanted to give a great big shout out to everyone who commented on my post about SPEAK. It's such an important topic and you're all made of awesome, so thank you. The Random Number Generator has spoken--a copy of SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson, as well as the cool censorship button goes to....LINDSAY (a.k.a. Isabella). Congrats Lindsay! Please email me your mailing address and Lacey and I will get your prizes out ASAP.

I'll be on vacation next week, without internet access (I know, right?), and I'll be leaving the blog in the hands of my amazing Sisters. Hope everyone has a great week of reading and writing. I'll leave you with some words of inspiration for aspiring novelists: If Snooki can do it, so can you! :)

4 Comments on SPEAK Contest Winner, last added: 10/6/2010

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Lindsay (a.k.a Isabella) said, on 10/5/2010 5:52:00 AM

OMG that is the nicest suprise this morning. Thank you. And thank you for SPEAKing up on this important topic. :)

Kristi Helvig said, on 10/5/2010 6:22:00 AM

You're welcome--congrats Lindsay! :)

L.J. Boldyrev said, on 10/5/2010 6:48:00 AM

Yay!!!! Lindsay!!!1 :D

Kristi, we will try not to let the blog fall apart without you. But I'm afraid I can't make that promise. Hurry home! :) Enjoy your vacation!

Samantha Bennett said, on 10/6/2010 6:44:00 PM

Ah, congrats to the winners and happy vacationing, Kristi!

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By: Laurie Halse Anderson, on 7/25/2010
Blog: Mad Woman in the Forest (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  video, teachers, sexual assault, speak, Add a tag

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By: Laurie Halse Anderson, on 9/19/2010
Blog: Mad Woman in the Forest (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  censorship, speak, Add a tag

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By: Trisha, Gayle, and Jolene, on 9/20/2010
Blog: The YA YA YAs (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Book News, laurie halse anderson, speak, Add a tag

The fact that there are people who think teens shouldn’t read a YA novel about rape, who call Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak “soft pornography”, only makes the book that much more important. Rape and sexual assault occur with alarming frequency, yet 60% of these crimes are not reported to the police. Books like Speak can help victims find their voice, and we desperately need them for this reason.

Many, many other bloggers have written eloquently about this, more articulately than I can. And I have so much admiration for the survivors who are sharing their own stories.

Reclusive Bibliophile is compiling posts. Please read them.

Filed under: Book News

3 Comments on #SpeakLoudly, last added: 9/21/2010

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Hell Hath No Fury Like the Book Community Scorned said, on 9/20/2010 5:07:00 AM

[...] The Ya Ya Yas http://ahauntofancientpeace.blogspot.com/2010/09/rape-is-not-pornography-speak-loudly.html [...]

Patty McClune said, on 9/20/2010 6:31:00 AM

This YouTube video of Anderson reading her poem Listen, underscores the impact her YA novel, Speak, has had on readers. The first and last lines of the poem are Anderson’s words, the rest are excerpts from letters she has received from readers.

Meg Cabot - Sleeping Cowgirls said, on 9/21/2010 5:14:00 PM

[...] ALA’s Banned Books Week yet (Sept. 25-Oct.2), but already everywhere I go, all I hear is “This author’s books have been [...]

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By: Karen Strong, on 9/20/2010
Blog: Musings of a Novelista (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Books, banned books, censorship, Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak, Add a tag

So I was out of town this past weekend and the day job has been pretty busy so it wasn’t until late Monday night when I got a chance to read up on the latest censorship battle of one of my favorite books, Speak.

I then went over and read Laurie Halse Anderson’s post on the issue.

See here’s the thing with me:

I don’t have a problem with people voicing their opinions about books. I don’t even have a problem with people saying that certain “subjects” in books are inappropriate for a certain audience (in this case teens). I don’t even have a problem with people forbidding the teens that live in their house to read such books.

What I do have a problem with are people who tell me that these books are bad and should be censored and forbid the teens that live in my home to read such books.

Because you see that’s my job.

As a writer it goes even further because then it becomes that whatever I choose to write about — when it’s deemed controversial or salacious or even my favorite word — gratuitous — that I can’t write it or that it should be banned. That I should write about “safe” things.

I can write whatever I want.

It’s the reader’s choice to decide if they want to read it.

For me, this type of censorship is wrong. And the irony is that 9 times of out 10, most of these challenged/banned books have not even been read cover to cover. Or they’ve been read of context. Or worse not read at all.

Taking a book away from teens that a selected few deem unfit is censorship.

Anyway, this has hit a nerve with me. I plan on buying 10 copies of Speak and donating them to my library this week.

And to all of my fellow writers, not only SPEAK LOUDLY but WRITE LOUDLY.

5 Comments on Speak Loudly, last added: 9/21/2010

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Andrea said, on 9/21/2010 3:35:00 AM

Great post, Karen! I love what you said about it being the reader’s choice. Far better for people to put their energy into teaching their own children to make good choices about what they read than to worry about what everyone else’s kids are reading.

Anne M Leone said, on 9/21/2010 5:53:00 AM

Yay! Good for you (and your library!)!

Kelsey T said, on 9/21/2010 8:51:00 AM

I think part of the reason this is so disappointing is because we all know that sometimes books are the only way to tackle and confront issues such as rape (or eating disorders, abuse, etc.). This guy is a pastor and should be acknowledging that there is evil in the world and books on related topics can be the best way to cope. We should be commending authors like LHA because she writes realistically about the topics that are hard to discuss verbally.

And to agree with you, who is this man to tell people what they can and cannot read?

Karen said, on 9/21/2010 9:17:00 AM

Andrea: I remember growing up there were certain TV shows and books that I just couldn’t see. I even remember a movie that all the kids in school talked about that I was forbidden to watch.

So I get it about protecting your child or teen from material you deem that they shouldn’t read. There are some books that I probably wouldn’t give to my god-daughters because they are still not old enough to read certain subjects.

But I just have a problem with people censoring books from EVERYONE.

Anne: Yes, I plan on buying the books today as well as some copies of TWENTY BOY SUMMER by Sarah Ockler. This is one thing that I love about my library system — they carry a wide range of books on “controversial” subjects. The librarian once told me that these books are usually the ones that are always checked out and/or requested.

Kelsey: Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Growing up, I knew so many young girls who had encountered tough situations (unfortunately most of them rape or attempted rape) and in most cases, they never reported their cases or even worse, they were ostracized for it. Teens — especially teens today need these kind of books like SPEAK to know that their experiences are not a solitary thing and that it pays to speak up and take back your power. There is NO soft porn at all in that message.

Parents and teens can read these books together and have frank discussions. Or these parents/guardians can decide to not expose their teens to these type of books.

But that’s a choice for individuals to make. Not a mandate for everyone.

HeatherM said, on 9/21/2010 9:04:00 PM

Write Loudly, I love that! This controversy has touched us all and I’m honored to be part of a community that has risen up to SPEAK about it!

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By: Laurie Halse Anderson, on 9/22/2010
Blog: Mad Woman in the Forest (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  teachers, book loving community, censorship, librarians, speak, Add a tag

Did you know it’s Banned Book Week? I think this is especially poignant with the recent attempt at challenging Laurie Halse Anderson’sSpeak and Twisted; Ellen Hopkins’ disinvite and the censorship of Burned; and the recent challenge of Jo Knowles’ Lessons from a Dead Girl. Those are all wonderful, powerful, truly *important* YA books that deserve to reach people–that teens and adults should have the chance to discover and read.

I may be extra sensitive to book banning, since my parents literally burned and tore up some of my favorite books, and prevented me from having access to books through removing all my books for weeks at a time as punishment when I (quite desperately) depended on books as survival. And also because they consistently tried to silence me.

Books are so important, and a way for people to find validation, support, and information in a safe way that they wouldn’t otherwise find out about. They offer healing, a widening of the world and of dreams, and for me, they have been soul food. So to hear about people trying to prevent others from reading any book makes me angry. If you don’t want to read a book yourself, that’s fine–walk away from it. But to try to keep a book from everyone, or from a group of people? That’s not okay.

I found one of my favorite picture books, And Tango Makes Three, about a gay penguin couple, through book banning and challenges. So sometimes book banning may help to get the word out…to *some* people. But it prevents others from finding these wonderful books, and it saddens and angers me that this happens at all–and still happens today. To me it seems like an act of oppression, and of power. Something I’m quite familiar with.

I hope you’ll consider buying (or borrowing) and reading some of these banned books–and sharing them with others. I hope, too, that you’ll

Feeling lucky? There's a new Lucky Agent Contest going on over at the Guide to Literary Agents blog. It's open to those who write urban fantasy or paranormal (either YA or adult). The contest is judged by Marisa Corvisiero of the L. Perkins Agency. 3 winners will get a 10-page critique! Enter by Wed. Oct. 6th. Good luck!

Tomorrow (Tues. 9/28), we're giving away a copy of SPEAK by the amazing Laurie Halse Anderson here at Sisters in Scribe. Come back tomorrow for more information and details on how to enter.

Happy Monday!

--

The clock is ticking ever closer to the start of the FORGE book tour, and the available hours to get everything done by then are becoming perilously few.

So I am going to turn this blog into a lightning round.

Ready?

Last week: the Scroggins book banning kerfuffle. Lots of interviews. Said “Scroggins” a lot. This made me think of Charles Dickens. That was nice. Quick trip to Denver to talk to independent bookstore folks there.

Weekend: Hung out with Revolutionary War geeks at Ft. Ticonderoga. Drank spruce beer.

This week: waiting for Magic 8 Ball to deliver verdict on possibility of writing time. Hoping I don’t get BH’s cold. Hoping that the chickens lay eggs soon. Writer’s group tomorrow. Possibility of hibernation after that.

Ideas for you:

1. Join the Speak Loudly Community! (Many, many thanks to David Gill and Paul Hankins for setting it up!)

2. Add a SpeakLoudly Twibbon to your Twitter or Facebook profile pic.

3. Contact bookavore if you need an incredibly good copy editor for academic papers or fiction writing.

4. If you live in Republic, MO, drop me a line and let me know how the Scroggins’ banning attempt is proceeding.

Whew!

Questions?

Melinda is entering Merryweather High School with no friends, no voice, and seemingly no hope. During an end-of-the-summer party, she called the cops. Now, all her old friends won't talk to her and all the people she doesn't know hate her blindly. Since Melinda feels that her parents wouldn't understand, the safest place to be is inside her head. Melinda at first finds a sort of comfort isolated within herself, but it doesn't last. Lurking in the depths of her own mind is a demon. A memory, of the party, which she dare not remember. A thought which she dare not say. Slowly, it eats away at her, threatening to swallow her from within. Slowly suffocating, Melinda is faced with a choice. To speak, or to surrender to the spectre that haunts her thoughts.

What makes Speak such an original work of art is its dynamic mood. At the beginning of the novel, Melinda has clearly been through something major. She also has no friends. This combination has given Melinda a depressed, cynical, and sarcastic view on high school and life in general. What makes this a good thing is the fact that Melinda presents high school in a refreshingly candid, satirical way. My personal favorite example of this is her "The First Ten Lies They Tell You In High School" list. I choose not to give them all away but among them is, "No smoking is allowed on school grounds" and my personal favorite, "These will be the years you look back fondly." This book will make you laugh, unless of course you have no sense of humor at all, which would be a shame since the comedy in this book makes really good points on high school sociology.

Dynamic means characterized by constant change, activity, or progress. So clearly, the book is not just a long satirical attack on high school. There are others moods involved. The opposite mood stems from Melinda's own subconscious. There is conflict within her. She is trying, vainly, to suppress a thought, a memory, in her mind. Doing so arguably drives her insane. She experiences agonizingly acute anxiety, dangerously deep depression, and stifling self-silence. As the book progresses, the emotions Melinda feels become more potent. In the end, the book becomes very very intense so be warned. This book is not a fairy tale filled with rainbows after storms and kisses after poison-apple-based "death."

Bottom line (figuratively, not literally): Speak is powerful. Speak is intense. Speak is witty. Speak is dynamic. Speak is a good book. It is well-rounded and it relates well to teenagers. I advise reading it at least once just for the experience of it. Even if you're not a depressed person, it's good to see the world through Melinda's eyes because there are a lot of people who see the world a similar way.

I give Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson a (relatively) unheard of 5 out of 5 stars.







Acerbically yours,
Gabriel Gethin

So my presentation yesterday at the SCBWI Oregon Spring conference went over nicely. The grandmas went missing just before I was supposed to go up and talk. I think they got lured into the tea room.

I was in extremely good company. Mark Fearing spoke just before me on Graphic Novels. He’s an amazing illustrator and also an animator (animators RULE). He’s got a graphic novel coming out in 2011, which sounds really promising - so look for it!

At the end of his talk, Mark said something really awesome. It was about rules and how he doesn’t like them when it comes to talking about getting your work sold.

You know how I am about rules. There are so many ways to approach any endeavor. People can have success with completely opposite approaches.

My talk was about not creating art in the computer, based on this blog post. The title sounds very rules-ish, right?

In fact, before,during, and after my talk I learned that at least three artists in the room (including Mark Fearing) create their art directly in the computer.

It’s a perfect example of not applying stuff people tell you (me included) about how to create your art. The rules are, there ain’t no rules.

I can talk on the blog and in my digital illustration course about my approach to creating digital art. It works for me. It’s a proven method and lots of people buy my stuff.

Regardless, if it goes against what works for you, then please do one of two things:

1. Ignore me. Move along, nothing to see here. Do your thing.
2. Tell me about it so I can share it with my people.

One of my grander plans for the digital illustration school is to bring in guest illustrators to demo their methods. There are as many methods as there are people and I think this would be a huge help to students - knowing that there isn’t just one way.

So my talk went well. People seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and I think they were entertained. Here’s a sampling of some of the images I brought up to demonstrate my points…

My head floating out of a robot. At least they knew I would be weird right up front.

I used Jenni's bread to talk about illustration. Yep. Officially wacko.

I also used coffee to talk about illustration. Where was I going with this?

Believe me, I knew they were wondering.

It's a NASA flight control panel. If you weren't there, you wouldn't understand.

My first attempt at creating art in the computer. Hideous, scary, and really, really bad.

A recent illustration for Highlights Magazine. I eventually figured out a method.

The final pencil sketch for the Highlights High Five illo. It was "done" before I even went to the computer.

There was more to it than these slides show. I wish you had been there.

It was fun. People laughed at me (thank god).

I think the reason I felt good about it was that aside from the little slide show, I pretty much “winged” my talk. Sure, I knew where I was going, I rehearsed a few things. Mostly it was conversational and that made it much more relaxed for me and (I think) the audience.

I think I helped some people, which was the whole point of me standing in front of them and waving my arms around while talking about weird stuff like bread. 

If I gave even one person in the audience a seed of an idea about how to use their computer to create illustration, then I succeeded.

If I made them hungry, then my plan for total world domination kicked off nicely.

I absolutely HATE text language. Nothing in the world annoys me more than seeing someone type in text language. Okay, I do use the occasional text language phrase like ‘you’ becomes ‘u’ and ‘are’ becomes ‘r’. I do use the occasional acronym like ‘to be honest’ becomes ‘tbh’, ‘laughing out loud’ becomes ‘lol’ and ‘by the way’ becomes ‘btw’. I think a text language vocabulary of up to 20 words should be tolerated. (Mine only reaches like 5 which is better but…! ) But when situations worsen to a point where you see someone write ‘I am busy right now’ in text language and it looks like ‘i m bc ryt nw’, at that point, you really want to bang your head on the nearest wall until your eyes pop out and even Homer Simpson seems as attractive as Brad Pitt.

Here is my list of why text language spelling should officially be allowed to get a criminal record (or better still - imprisonment) if exceeded by 20 words in its vocabulary list:

1. It makes you sound like a 2 year old. 2 year olds can’t type and when you type text spelling, it looks like you can’t type, thus making you look like a 2 year old.
2. It makes you sound illiterate. It feels like your mum and dad denied you the basic education you should have deserved.
3. It makes you look like you are so poverty stricken that your keyboard has been bashed by a cow but you still won’t replace it.
4. Text spelling seems to worm its way to exam papers and other official pieces of papers and THAT is despicable.
5. It looks like jumbled letters. It really looks like you are trying to teach little Molly how to read and write.
6. Using text language is denying other people the right to read. When they look at random letters, no punctuation and no use of the teensiest bit of decent grammar, then their mind goes into delirium whether what they are reading is proper or not, thus corrupting their minds.
7. Children will become weird because of text language and will take over the world with signs and posters and literally everything sounding that way.
8. Teachers won’t be able to correct exam papers because if the students use text spelling and the teachers can’t (I’m pretty sure half the teachers think ‘lol’ means lolling about because we find something funny, which really, makes no sense at all) that’s illiteracy stepped up a notch and a waste of doing exams anyway. As it is, the British government education folk are worried exams are getting easier by the second.
9. On a much more realistic note, text spelling is going out of fashion. More and more people shun it and funnily enough shun those who still use it, so if you use it, stop. Or you’ll find yourself tied to a pole near the bus stop getting thrashed by a bunch of geekily cool teenagers.

I know that was a pretty angry rant but, let’s face the facts, text language spelling isn’t great! If anything at all, it is wasteful. People say it reduces the effort to type but it increases the effort to read. Let’s all type decently and read decently and not become slaves to ‘txt lngage splng’ (or for normal people, text language spelling).

I absolutely HATE text language. Nothing in the world annoys me more than seeing someone type in text language. Okay, I do use the occasional text language phrase like ‘you’ becomes ‘u’ and ‘are’ becomes ‘r’. I do use the occasional acronym like ‘to be honest’ becomes ‘tbh’, ‘laughing out loud’ becomes ‘lol’ and ‘by the way’ becomes ‘btw’. I think a text language vocabulary of up to 20 words should be tolerated. (Mine only reaches like 5 which is better but…! ) But when situations worsen to a point where you see someone write ‘I am busy right now’ in text language and it looks like ‘i m bc ryt nw’, at that point, you really want to bang your head on the nearest wall until your eyes pop out and even Homer Simpson seems as attractive as Brad Pitt.

Here is my list of why text language spelling should officially be allowed to get a criminal record (or better still - imprisonment) if exceeded by 20 words in its vocabulary list:

1. It makes you sound like a 2 year old. 2 year olds can’t type and when you type text spelling, it looks like you can’t type, thus making you look like a 2 year old.
2. It makes you sound illiterate. It feels like your mum and dad denied you the basic education you should have deserved.
3. It makes you look like you are so poverty stricken that your keyboard has been bashed by a cow but you still won’t replace it.
4. Text spelling seems to worm its way to exam papers and other official pieces of papers and THAT is despicable.
5. It looks like jumbled letters. It really looks like you are trying to teach little Molly how to read and write.
6. Using text language is denying other people the right to read. When they look at random letters, no punctuation and no use of the teensiest bit of decent grammar, then their mind goes into delirium whether what they are reading is proper or not, thus corrupting their minds.
7. Children will become weird because of text language and will take over the world with signs and posters and literally everything sounding that way.
8. Teachers won’t be able to correct exam papers because if the students use text spelling and the teachers can’t (I’m pretty sure half the teachers think ‘lol’ means lolling about because we find something funny, which really, makes no sense at all) that’s illiteracy stepped up a notch and a waste of doing exams anyway. As it is, the British government education folk are worried exams are getting easier by the second.
9. On a much more realistic note, text spelling is going out of fashion. More and more people shun it and funnily enough shun those who still use it, so if you use it, stop. Or you’ll find yourself tied to a pole near the bus stop getting thrashed by a bunch of geekily cool teenagers.

I know that was a pretty angry rant but, let’s face the facts, text language spelling isn’t great! If anything at all, it is wasteful. People say it reduces the effort to type but it increases the effort to read. Let’s all type decently and read decently and not become slaves to ‘txt lngage splng’ (or for normal people, text language spelling).

(Yes, I know this is a long post. With no pictures. It's important. Please read through to the end. And then pass it on.)

While I was out of town last week, I received word of three attempts to remove two of my books from high school classrooms, TWISTED and SPEAK.

The challenge I have the least information on is apparently taking place at Downingtown West High School in Downingtown, PA. TWISTED is on the 9th grade summer reading list there. Some parents object to the book because of the description of sexual behavior in it.

The second TWISTED challenge is taking place this week at Montgomery High School in Mt. Sterling, KY. A parent there feels the book is inappropriate.

Here is a quote from the draft of the letter I am sending to the Mt. Sterling superintendent:

"I suspect the roots of the parental concern about TWISTED are the scenes in which teenagers make stupid, dangerous, and occasionally horrifying decisions.

Because readers who can experience those decisions – by reading about them – and appreciate the consequences of those actions - by seeing those consequences affect the lives of a book’s characters - are less likely to do the stupid, dangerous and occasionally horrifying things themselves.

Jesus knew this. He did not simply reiterate the Ten Commandments, or tell us to love one another and walk back into the desert. He told stories that made his listeners think. They make us think two thousand years later.

Storytelling is the traditional vehicle mankind uses to pass wisdom from one generation to the next. TWISTED contains a lot of bad decisions, hard consequences, and wisdom.

In an addendum to this letter, you will find a listing of the state and national awards TWISTED has received. They were all very flattering, but none of them mean nearly as much to me as the email I get from readers. Here are a few quotes from them.

“I just wanted to say thank you for writing this book. I have been considering killing myself for many years and now i am entering my junior year of high school and about 10 minutes ago finished this book. It has given me a new perspective on life and that death isn’t the easy way out. I can relate to Tyler in many ways… I greatly appreciate this book because now I know that there is hope in my life and that death is not the answer. And one more thing this is the only book I have been able to pick up and not put down from start to finish. I finished it in one day.”

It is my first morning of high school. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.

Thanks to everyone who voted for Zoe in the last couple of weeks, and to everyone who put up with me blathering on about voting for Zoe in the last couple of weeks. I'm pretty sure she didn't make the Top 5. We'll know for sure in January. It was a blast to have a book that was even considered breakfast food for the mind; I'm a happy camper.

A Facebook Friend (thanks Chris!) pointed me to this interview with Kristen Stewart for Irish television. She mentions playing the lead in the SPEAK movie around the 4:30 mark.



Here is a Public Service Announcement Kristen made about college campus security and high rate of sexual assault at colleges.



And because I promised someone, here is a shot from the filming of SPEAK. That's me in my world-famous role as "Lunch Lady." Kristen Stewart, as Melinda,  is standing with her back to the camera, about to go through the line to get her lunch. This is where my highly acclaimed, tension-filled moment "serves mashed potatoes" occurs. Really, when you think about it, it was the climax to the whole film.



Good Samhain to all! Now our world slips into the dark half of the year. We light candles and tell tales around the fire.

Lauren, Publicity Assistant

This weekend, James S. Fishkin, Professor of Communication and Political Science at Stanford University and Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy, will conduct a Deliberative Poll® in Michigan. A scientific sample of 200+ people will convene in Lansing to deliberate about the state’s economic future, and in the end, the poll will reveal what the public thinks about these issues, both before and after it has had a chance to become informed.

Fishkin’s most recent book, When the People Speak: Deliberative Democracy and Public Consultation, explains this method of polling. It combines a new theory of democracy with actual practice, and has demonstrated how an idea that harks back to ancient Athens can be used to revive modern democracies. Fishkin and his collaborators have already conducted deliberative democracy projects in the United States, China, Britain, Denmark, Australia, Italy, Bulgaria, Northern Ireland, and in the entire European Union. These projects have resulted in the massive expansion of wind power in Texas, the building of sewage treatment plants in China, and greater mutual understanding between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland.

When the People Speak is accompanied by a DVD of “Europe in One Room” by Emmy Award-winning documentary makers Paladin Invision. The film recounts one of the most challenging deliberative democracy efforts with a scientific sample from 27 countries speaking 21 languages. Watch the trailer after the jump.

EUROPE IN ONE ROOM
Courtesy of the Center for Deliberative Democracy

by Jack Higginswith Justin RichardsPenguin / Speak 2009Bond movies were the first place I encountered the idea of a story starting with an action sequence that was unrelated (or tangentially at best) to the rest of the story. The idea was to get the blood pumping with Bond in some perilous chase, have him come out victorious, slide into the title sequence, then into the story at hand.It's an

Kate Malone is one of those over-achievers; every school has one. Not only is she a straight-A student with especially outstanding grades in math and science, she also happens to be a long distance-running track superstar. She is a minister's daughter. She is dating Mitchell "Mitch" Pangborn III, who is got accepted Early Decision into Harvard. She is the unwilling caretaker of her family, between the death of her mother and the religious duties of her father, Kate is left with most of the house chores. On top of all this, she is a master of avoiding emotions. However, her emotional avoidance skills get put to the test after a series of cataclysmic events turn her life upside-down.

The storyline is pretty good. No complaints about the seriousness of the aforementioned cataclysmic events, they are really quite life changing. The story is easy to relate to, especially for high school students. All high school seniors share a good degree of nervousness over college acceptance. Also, the characters are pretty unique, yet stereotypical. Sound contradicting? It is. Kate Malone, for example, is a classic example of the overachiever student everyone knows will go to some Ivy League school and invent some radical new piece of technology. However, she is not so simple. Sure, she is smart, but she only applies to one school, MIT. Anderson is a master of creating believable, yet unique characters with refreshing amounts of wit. She also develops her characters, and their relationships with one another, beautifully.

Another aspect of Anderson's writing I simply love is her mastery of changing points of view. Not from first person to third person, but changing the way people see the world around them. As the characters' view of one another and the surrounding world change, so also do the reader's. The reader follows the characters' journey as if he/she were a part of it.

The story is set in the same community as Speak, which is pretty exciting if you've read Speak. If you haven't read Speak, what are you waiting for? I gave it five out of five daggers! That's more than enough to convince you to read it. Anyways, there's a great moment in Catalyst where Kate Malone refers to Melinda from Speak, got to love it.

If you've read this far, congratulations. You have patience. Some call it a virtue. As a reward, you get to hear my negative criticism for Catalyst. First things first, it's not as good as Speak. Speak was more humorous, more emotional, and (from a certain angle) more believable. Catalyst wasn't far-fetched. However, the way the events snowball and cause this sort of domino effect makes the story seem less likely to ever happen to a real life person (however, I'm sure someone is going to get lucky). Also, I felt much sorrier for Melinda than for Kate.

Nevertheless, Catalyst was most certainly enjoyable.

4 potentially painful daggers, out of the potentially more painful 5.

You know the sound a car engine makes at the RPMs are climbing and you are preparing to shift into the next gear?

Make that sound in your mind right now.

I'm getting ready to shift gears and go full throttle on a number of projects.

Before I can do that, though, I have to clean off a couple of desks and check off the last items on a few to-do lists. And close a bunch of tabs that have been open for weeks while I wait for the right moment to blog about them.

Here's a short article about a recent Skype visit I did with 6th graders who had read CHAINS.

CHAINS also made the "A More Perfect Union" Bookself, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The chosen books will be distributed to 4,000 school (K-12) and public libraries. Why? The NEH says "As the American people begin observing the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, NEH seeks to promote reflection among young people on the idea of the United States as a “union.”" I was excited to see that my friend Pam Muñoz Ryan's book, When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, is also on the list. I was honored that W.E.B. Dubois's, The Souls of Black Folk, is on the list, too. Be sure to check out the whole list!

Over at YA BookSelf, they've posted an article comparing rejection letters to SPEAK. What do you think of it?

At last, but certainly not least, Wendy at SimpleThrift (a terrific blog about living a frugal and creative life while raising kids) has been naming her chickens after her favorite authors. She just posted a short and fun Good Egg Interview with me because....

  (photo credit Wendy Thomas)

she named this little girl "Laurie Halse Anderson."