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Your Summer Blog Blast Tour schedule for Day #2:

Maya Ganesan at Miss Erin

Amber Benson at lectitans

Carolyn Hennesy at Little Willow: "I have been entranced by Greek mythology since I was about 11 years old. I started studying it in a summer school program taught by a big, blowsy, blonde goddess of a teacher who read straight out of Edith Hamilton . . . nothing sugar-coated."

Jo Knowles at Hip Writer Mama

Sherri Winston at Finding Wonderland

Your Summer Blog Blast Tour schedule for Day #1:

Andrew Mueller at Chasing Ray: "There really is very little demand for news about the proverbial far away countries of which we know nothing - go to the website of any quality news agency or highbrow newspaper, and look at their most read/forwarded stories and you'll find that celebrity sex and skateboarding meerkats have it all over pestilence, war, famine and death. "

Kekla Magoon at Fuse Number 8: "I’ve realized in writing this book that the way we tell history to kids is very hero-focused. It’s especially true of Black History. How does the story go? There was slavery, then Abraham Lincoln. Segregation, then Rosa Parks. Then Dr. King came along, and now we’re all living happily ever after. Ummm….simplified much?"

Carrie Jones at Writing & Ruminating: "Girls deserve stories where the butt-kicking and the saving isn’t ALWAYS done by the guys. They deserve stories where the female isn’t always the damsel in distress. She can be in distress sometimes, but not all the time."

Amber Benson at Little Willow

Greg van Eekhout at Shaken & Stirred

And don't forget the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Boys to benefit the boys incarcerated in the LA County juvenile justice system! Read more here.

Andrew Mueller's essay collection was released earlier this year and became one of the books that I could not put down. Although published for an adult audience, I included it in my March column as I think it would be an excellent choice for older teens interested in learning about the world in general and international relations (and war) in particular. From my review:

From the always topical indy publisher Soft Skull Press, this collection of essays written by the rock critic/foreign correspondent/travel writer Andrew Mueller is essential reading for anyone interested in knowing more about geopolitical relations. Best of all, Mueller is devastatingly funny and asks the questions we're too polite to ask ourselves. (In one exchange in the former Soviet republic of Georgia he asks his cab driver, “Why do you people always drive like fucking idiots?” The response is classic: “We drive like this… because in Georgia, life is short.”) In both his writing style and subject matter Mueller is a role model for 21st century journalism. Forget about the cable news; if you want to know how it is in the world’s troublespots (and in a few peaceful locales), then Mueller is the one to ask.

His essay about a visit to Kabul in 2003 includes an exchange with a local describing the bleakness of life under the Taliban: “They outlawed all the senses. There was nothing to look at, nothing to listen to, nobody you could touch. Even the food didn’t taste of anything.” Mueller also recounts several visits to Iraq including one in 2003 where he ponders that “…invading an entire country seemed a klutzy way to get one guy out of his job.” Later in the book he recalls a long visit to the West Bank in late 2005 where the issue of Israeli settlements came up repeatedly in conversations with both Palestinians and Israelis, but again Mueller can’t help asking (of both sides) the most basic question:

"If the East Timorese, having won independence, started encouraging their people to build homes in West Timor, we’d suspect LSD in the water supply. If Kosovo, when independence came, announced an intention to help itself to choice hilltops in Serbia, the international community would suggest, forcibly, that they pull their heads in. It seemed a no-brainer. The Israelis had a homeland. Why didn’t the Israelis live in it?"

A lot of readers find important topics difficult to read about as authors of those subjects can tend to be pedantic and, to be blunt, desperately dull. Andrew tackles all of his subjects with a sharp, biting, and indeed often very funny style that is both riveting and refreshing. His book continues to be one that I refer to and think about and something that in these times I think there is no excuse for not reading. What follows is an exchange between Andrew and myself over a period of several months where topics ranged the Congo to Ireland. He's a wonderful writer covering important subjects and most certainly an author to watch.

CM : What people have you interviewed in the past who still stay with you?

AM: Lots, but probably not the ones who might be expected. Though some of my encounters with the famous and infamous have been memorable, they're not the ones I still wonder about - because it's usually easy to find out what they're up to, and because they're either i) capable of fending for themselves, or ii) undeserving of much sympathy. It's always the - for want of a less pejorative term - "ordinary" folks, reacting to extraordinary (for
which read insane or grotesque) circumstances with courage, grace and dignity. A handy representation of such people will always be the telephone engineers I met in Baghdad just after the capture of the city in 2003. Their place of work was, inevitably, a bombed, burned and looted ruin, but they were getting dressed and coming in every morning on time anyway, willing to put in a day, tidying up as best they could, hoping things would get better eventually. They were just plain decent, kind, honest, courteous chaps, which increasingly strikes me as the most commendable of accomplishments. I really hope they're all okay.

CM: How hard is it to walk away from people in a circumstance like that one (and many others you describe) and never know what happens next? Has this ever affected your decision to pursue a story? (Or made you feel differently about a story after you wrote it?)

AM: Whether or not this marks me as some sort of sociopath I don't know, but it really doesn't trouble me that much. Walking away, after all, is what I'm always going to have to do, on the grounds that I don't live wherever it is I happen to be working. Which isn't to say that I never think of the people I meet again - I do think of them, often, and indeed some people I've met on assignments have become and stayed friends. It's increasingly the case, though - for everybody, not just journalists - that if you're really that interested in what someone you once met is doing, it's easy enough to find out. What I mostly feel about about anyone in any story I've written is hope I told their story - or, at least, my perception of it - well, and honestly.

Your Summer Blog Blast Tour Schedule starting on Monday. This post will be updated with exact urls and interview quotes each day next week.

Monday, May 18th

Andrew Mueller at Chasing Ray
Kekla Magoon at Fuse Number 8
Carrie Jones at Writing & Ruminating
Amber Benson at Little Willow
Greg van Eekhout at Shaken & Stirred

Tuesday, May 19th

Maya Ganesan at Miss Erin
Sherri Winston at Finding Wonderland
Amber Benson at lectitans
Carolyn Hennesy at Little Willow
Jo Knowles at Hip Writer Mama

Wednesday, May 20th

Barbara O'Conner at Mother Reader
James Kennedy at Fuse Number 8
Maggie Stiefvater at Writing & Ruminating
Rosemary Clement-Moore at Little Willow
Jo Knowles at lectitans
Melissa Wyatt at Chasing Ray

Thursday, May 21st

Siobhan Vivian at Miss Erin
Alma Alexander at Finding Wonderland
Laurel Snyder at Shaken & Stirred
Cindy Pon at The Ya Ya Yas
Thalia Chaltas at Little Willow

Friday May 22nd

Jenny Davidson at Chasing Ray
Rebecca Stead at Fuse Number 8
Ryan Mecum at Writing and Ruminating
Lauren Myracle at Little Willow
Kristin Cashore at Hip Writer Mama

And don't forget the Guys Lit Wire Book Fair for Boys benefiting the male teens incarcerated in LA County's juvenile justice system. The fair continues to run all next week.

Here is your second day's schedule:

Ellen Dalow at Chasing Ray: "With regard to collections, I think that many YA authors don’t write much short fiction. Those that do, have perhaps only recently been hitting the public consciousness and might not yet have enough stories for a collection. I assume it’s also a marketing issue. If librarians asked publishers for anthologies and collections, perhaps publishers would listen."

Tony DiTerlizzi at Miss Erin

Melissa Walker at Hip Writer Mama: "When I’m on a deadline for a book, I eat breakfast, then write. I don’t allow myself to have lunch until I have 1,000 words on the page. They don’t have to be good words, but they have to be there. I do that five days a week; afternoons are spent working on magazine stories. At that rate, you can get your 60,000 words in just 12 weeks."

Luisa Plaja at Bildungsroman: "But I could see that the line between 'popular' and 'not' was arbitrary. It was about a lot more than how you looked, dressed and behaved, and the same qualities that landed one person in the in-crowd could lead another to be an outcast. Having said that, I will freely admit that I was a misfit at school, although I rebelled in a quiet, obedient way, so as not to disturb anyone."

DM Cornish at Finding Wonderland: "Deeper still, it all began with Star Wars at age 5, with The Lord of the Rings at age 12, Narnia, H.P. Lovecraft, Fighting Fantasy books, the illustrations of Ian Miller and Angus McBride and Rodney Matthews, the Iliad, Frankenstein, Dune, Steinbeck, building with Lego[TM] and inventing worlds and stories to go with the models, the dinosaur and ghost books I read as a child, that really really cool Galactic Aliens book in my primary school's library (looking out for it still)...and all those things that boiled and bubbled until Mervyn Peake's Titus Alone finally burst the lid."

LJ Smith at The YA YA YAs

Kathleen Duey at Bookshelves of Doom

I first discovered Lewis Buzbee through his witty collection of bookish essays, The Yellow Lighted Bookshop which received a starred review from PW. Here's a bit of it:

Woven into these personal essays is a tangential discourse on the history of bookmaking and bookselling, from the ancient Romans and Chinese to the modern era. He describes the scriptoriums in Roman bookshops where the wealthy could order a book copied, the stacks of unbound quires a customer would have chosen from in a 15th-century bookshop (proto-paperbacks) and everything one would want to know about the modern business of bookselling, from ISBNs to remainders. On current hot-button issues, like predatory pricing by big-box stores and Internet vendors, he's careful where he draws his bottom line, which is 'between bookstores and the absence of them.'

The ideas behind his latest book, a novel for younger teens about a boy who helps save his local library while also becoming embroiled in a ghostly mystery surrounding John Steinbeck, really appealed to me although I did not expect at all to fall for the book as hard as I did. Steinbeck's Ghost was reviewed in my October column and I also wrote about here last summer:

Steinbeck's Ghost is an exceedingly literary mystery for teens and certainly on par with comparable books written for adults. Buzbee doesn't shy away from digging into Steinbeck's life or books and all of it - from Cannery Row to his westerns to his constant exploration of life for the "common man" is analyzed here by Travis and his friends (some of whom are young and some who are much older). I never read Cannery Row or Sea of Cortez or The Pastures of Heaven, all of which I am determined to pick up now. For that alone, Buzbee is to be commended - he is a writer who generates interest in the works of others. But I also loved Steinbeck's Ghost because it knows its audience is smart and capable and treats them that way from the very beginning. You've got a mystery, a ghost story (several in fact), a coming-of-age tale, a family drama with some serious discussion of social and economic class and what that means to a kid, and some very excellent "buddy" moments. It's rare I find a book that is the whole reading package but this one certainly is it.

Lewis answered the following questions earlier this fall and also added some wonderful back story on how a very Bradburyesque character ended up in Steinbeck's Ghost.

Chasing Ray: Okay obvious question - have you been a Steinbeck fan all your life or was your interest kindled by the near closure of the library?

LB: I first read Steinbeck when I was fifteen—The Grapes of Wrath, for a book report. I hadn’t been that much of a reader to that point; I thought perhaps I’d be a rock star. But when I read that, everything changed. I immediately began reading and writing, and the rock star dream, alas, died.

CR: You name drop several titles and authors in your book, most notably A Wrinkle in Time. What was your first encounter with that book?

LB: In sixth grade Mrs. Shamblin used to read to us in the afternoons, and one of those was A Wrinkle in Time, which had a profound impact on me. Part of my pleasure in hearing that book was the sleepiness that comes in late-spring, late-afternoon classrooms, the half-sleepiness of all that, both drowsy and attentive.

CR: You did an excellent job of weaving together several storylines here but the one that surprised me the most was the aspects of the plot dealing with Travis and his parents. The sharp way in which you addressed the conflict between "keeping up with the Joneses" and having enough time to enjoy that life really hit home for me. Do you think Travis's problem with his parents is a common one for today's young people?

LB: At my daughter’s school I see this all the time. Or rather, don’t see it. After a while you realize you never meet certain parents, mothers or fathers but mostly fathers, who are always at work. Kids stuck after school, waiting for their parents to return, parents gone until 8 or 9 at night regularly, or away on business trips. I understand—trust me, I understand—that it’s hard to make a living and support a family. But what’s the use working so hard to support a family you never see? It’s all fine to think of your family’s financial situation, but what might be lost to that?

CR: I'll confess that I actually thought Corral de Tierra [which is mentioned in Steinbeck's Ghost] was a real book. Is there a title about Steinbeck similar to that one or is this a book based on what you wish had been written?

LB: No, all my invention. Maybe I need to write that some day.

CR: There is a lot of Salinas history in the book, as well as Steinbeck history. Did you craft it as a mystery from the very beginning? It seems like a very unusual (and effective) way to "celebrate” a literary figure - especially to young audience. Since your first book was a memoir on your love of reading, did you consider at all writing about Steinbeck in a nonfic way?

CR: Creating a mystery for this book seemed imperative. I needed, first, to have a story that readers who didn’t know Steinbeck could engage with, in hopes that it would take them to Steinbeck. And I also wanted to write a mystery that was an un-mystery, an anti-mystery. So much of our literature—for adults and younger readers—are based on mysteries that actually get “solved.” But most mysteries, that is, life’s mysteries, don’t have solutions, they only deepen and expand. At the end of the book, Travis understands some small pieces of the mystery he’s lived through, but these mysteries also propel him, I hope, into the next stage of his life. Writing a mystery seemed the best way to comment on this.

LB: I also have a 10 year-old daughter and she gets very impatient with books that have no mystery to them. It’s not because, I don’t think, that younger readers are too impatient; I think it’s because life is a mystery to them—to all of us?—and reading can help you weave your way into and around and maybe even out of these mysteries.
The other part of the question: because I was so formed, in some way, by Steinbeck, I have always had an urge to write about him, but non-fiction never felt the right venue for me. His letters are so good, there are several fine biographies, not to mention Benson’s brilliant epic biography, and I know that I am no biographer. When I first started writing this book, I thought it was all about the libraries, but for me it was all about Steinbeck, in the end, trying to pay tribute to the power of his words. That part of it kind of snuck up on me.

CR: There is a lot here about community service for young people and Travis serves as an excellent example of how they can effect positive change in their community. Do you think most teens understand the value of community service or that adults appreciate their potential contribution?

LB: I was 13 in 1970, in the middle of all that foment, and for one reason or another, I became very political at an early age. I worked on behalf of the ecology movement, as we called it back then, and protested against the war in Vietnam, and for the rights of farm workers. Perhaps that’s one reason Steinbeck spoke so loudly to me a few years later—that sense of social justice that underlies much of his work. So I’ve always known that kids can make a difference. They really can.

I don’t know how kids feel about community service these days. My intuition tells me that, like many of the adults around them, they feel cut off from the political processes. Although I have teenage god-children who are very active—building low-cost housing, refurbishing dilapidated schools. But they are the exception. And adults, on the whole, don’t seem to view kids as contributors, as even interested in such issues. Which is too bad, because if you want passionate and committed workers, turn to teenagers. They can be loud and tireless.

CR: I can't help but think that libraries must have held (or hold) a significant place in your life. Can you explain a bit of how you personally feel about them and what place you feel they hold in communities?

LB: My memories of libraries are mostly personal ones, intimate ones. Walking into the public library near my home, spending late afternoon hours there, flitting from book to book, and then—magic of magic—taking the books home. I was only ever disappointed that I had to take the books back. I also had several librarians recommend titles to me that I still think about.

What I always have loved about librarians is that they take each of their readers seriously, as individuals with interests that need to be addressed. Money, class, appearance, cool-factor, none of that really matters in a library. Everyone has the same library card; there’s no platinum version. In that sense—and in many others—libraries are exceedingly democratic.

And of course, they’re free. What an amazing idea. When we look back and see how information has been controlled over centuries, and how that control has conferred power to the few, it’s quite stunning to come upon a public library. It’s not just books people get from libraries; it’s power. And it’s free.

CR: From the blurb on the cover it sounds like you are working on a book about Charles Dickens. Can you share a bit about it?

LB: I’ve just finished The Haunting of Charles Dickens, which will come out late next yearl. In this, it’s 1862, London, and Dickens is a living character this time. He’s a long-time family friend of the main character, Meg Pickel, whose brother has disappeared into the London Underworld. Meg and Dickens team up to recover her brother, a journey that introduces them to some of Dickens’s most well know characters and settings. Meg’s family are printers—this is how they know Dickens—and the literary emphasis in this book is on printing and publishing, and the craft and power of each. Full disclaimer: I stole this idea whole-cloth from my daughter, who, while we were in Salinas researching Steinbeck’s Ghost, piped up from the back seat and said, “Dad, the next one has to be Dickens.” And she was right.

After Dickens comes Mark Twain and the Mysterious Stranger, with an emphasis on journalism and newspapers. It’s a time travel novel, with a contemporary boy and girl waking up in San Francisco in 1864, when Mark Twain was a reporter there, and just as he’s begun using the name Mark Twain. What I’m so looking forward to with this book—I’ve just started researching it—is the time-travel scheme I’ve invented. Mark Twain will arrive in contemporary San Francisco, and I know that’s gonna be a lot of fun.
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In our email exchange, Lewis and I also discussed our mutual affection for Ray Bradbury and his amazing talent. Here is some of what he shared with me about his long ago meeting with that great American author:

"In Steinbeck’s Ghost, the reclusive writer Ernest Oster, tells Travis a story about meeting Ray Bradbury in the late 1950s, when Oster was a senior in high school. Oster had grown up in the same town as Bradbury, twenty years his senior, and Bradbury’s come back to visit his high school. After lunch in the school cafeteria with some students, Bradbury invites Oster to join him in a nearby park, where the two sit and Bradbury speaks to Oster about being a writer.

Well. That’s actually a story of mine that I’ve put on Oster.

Ray Bradbury was, lucky me, the first writer I ever met in person. I was a freshman in college, at UC Santa Barbara, and had been writing for a few years already, and reading up a storm, which, of course, included Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451 was, and still is, one of my favorite novels, along with all the rest.

Bradbury came to UCSB to give a reading, and some students, mostly English majors, I think, were invited to join him for lunch afterwards. Poor Ray, we ate in the dorm cafeteria. Well, as soon as lunch was over, the rest of the students got up and left—though why still baffles me. Bradbury does not drive, of course, and so had a few hours to wait before his train left, and he invited me to join him on the lawn—it was a beautiful, warm day, early spring. We sat out there and talked for several hours, right by the lagoon, and Ray took all my questions seriously. Much of what he told me is in Steinbeck’s Ghost, but here’s the most important thing he told me that day: Always eat sandwiches at lunch; that way you can read and eat at the same time.

It was an incredible afternoon, to say the least, and I am still amazed at Bradbury’s generosity, at how seriously he considered my questions and my ambition. I’ve met a lot of writers in the intervening years, and he is by far the most generous of them, and the most important, too.

When we parted that day he made me promise to send him my first published story, and I did, then he made me promise to send him my first published novel, and I did. I still write him a letter now and again, and his generosity continues. It was important to me that I get this story down somewhere, and to have it in Steinbeck’s Ghost feels like the right place."

Here's the way things look next week - keep in mind that I will be updating this post each day with exact urls and quotes from the interviews. Check back here or at any of the participating sites (plus a few other cool places) to see what is happening each day. (And don't forget to read all about the Holiday Book Recommendations Event for the week after Thanksgiving.)

Monday

Lewis Buzbee at Chasing Ray
Louis Sachar at Fuse Number 8
Laurel Snyder at Miss Erin
Courtney Summers at Bildungsroman
Elizabeth Wein at Finding Wonderland
Susan Kulkin at The YA YA YAs

Tuesday

Ellen Dalow at Chasing Ray
Tony DiTerlizzi at Miss Erin
Melissa Walker at Hip Writer Mama
Luisa Plaja at Bildungsroman
DM Cornish at Finding Wonderland
LJ Smith at The YA YA YAs
Kathleen Duey at Bookshelves of Doom

Wednesday

Ellen Klages at Fuse Number 8
Emily Jenkins at Wrting and Ruminating
Ally Carter at Miss Erin
Mark Peter Hughes at Hip Writer Mama
Sarah Littma at Bildungsroman
MT Anderson at Finding Wonderland
Mitali Perkins at Mother Reader

Thursday

Martin Millar at Chasing Ray
John Green at Writing and Ruminating
Beth Kephart at Hip Writer Mama
Emily Ecton at Bildungsroman
John David Anderson at Finding Wonderland
Brandon Mull at The YA YA YAs

Friday

Mayra Lazara Dole at Chasing Ray
Francis Rourke Dowell at Fuse Number 8
J Patrick Lewis at Writing and Ruminating
Wendy Mass at Hip Writer Mama
Lisa Ann Sandell at Bildungsroman
Caroline Hickey/Sara Lewis Holmes at Mother Reader

In discussions about books for teenagers one area that often gets overlooked is nonfiction. While I certainly agree that a fifteen-year old is capable of enjoying a biography of Charles Darwin just as much as the adult audience for whom it is published for, I do think that teens have interests that are overlooked by publishers. A perfect example of this is Elisha Cooper's ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: A Year in an American High School. When I reviewed it earlier this year at Bookslut I compared it to a documentary in print form:

The book opens with Daniel Patton, senior class president, hard worker and determined to get into Harvard. From there readers enter the lives of Emily, star soccer player; Maya, drama class star; Diana, a budding swimmer who is overwhelmed by family stresses; Aisha, transfer student; Zef, the music lover who sleeps through class; Anthony, the player wannabe, and Anais, the dancer. Collectively they are a bundle of contradictions, confident one moment and filled with uncertainties the next. They reveal their hopes for the future and concerns for the moment and second guess everything they think and do. The interaction between author and subject is seamless; the reader feels more as if they are a fly on the wall at Walter Payton then reading what amount to research notes. Cooper is almost totally invisible in the text, merely someone observing the events at the school and relating the specific thoughts of the teens he has chosen to highlight.

This is not a book for adults to read and remember what it was like for them in high school; it is completely and totally written for teenagers today and Elisha's attention to detail and the serious, professional way he appreciates his subjects reveals how much respect he has for his readers. When considering nonfiction for teens, ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool should be considered the standard - it is a subject teens want, written in a manner they can relate to by an author who appreciates their distinctive characteristics as readers. This is a wonderful and valuable book and I hope it reaches a wide audience.
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I think since ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool is such an unusual title in teen publishing that we should start with the basics. I hate asking such a bland question but the idea of following around several high school seniors for a year is pretty out there in publishing...so where did you get your idea from and how did you initiate the process of pulling it together? In other words, it is one thing to wonder just how the average 17-18 year old thinks, but actually meeting several of them, peeking into their lives and recording what you learn is not something that can be easy to plan. Can you explain how this all happened?

I wish the idea for the high school book was mine (the ideas for all my other books have been). But three years ago I got a call from an editor at Penguin who knew my work, and she suggested it. She reached me at a café on Division, in Chicago. I remember going outside and pacing around the broken-glass-strewn lot behind the café, talking with her for an hour about what this book could be. There was something so potentially cool about the idea – a year in a high school! I’d been working on a book about myself, about being a father, and the prospect of writing about other people, really diving into another place, was immediately appealing.

This talk was in July I think. Right afterwards I called a teacher friend at Walter Payton College Prep, downtown. Sam Dyson was my “in” at the high school. Chicago is pretty segregated, especially its schools. But Payton is a magnet school, drawing all kinds of kids from all over the city. It seemed like the right place to be. I felt diversity was essential, both for the book – for a reader to see herself, and also to see someone who was not herself – as well as for my own curiosity. Also, Payton was a ten-minute bike ride from where we lived.

After talking with Sam (who’s in the book), I was annoying as possible to the Payton administration: writing letters, dropping off other books of mine, calling the principal every day. Even with Sam’s help it was a process. There was a lot of “waiting to see what downtown has to say.” As the beginning of the school year approached, I got pretty nervous since I still didn’t have permission. Still, I started going to pre-season football practices, hanging around the school. I don’t think I got permission (signed forms from the kids), until later, end of September even, though at that point I’d sort of already showed up. Then I got my own Payton I.D. and I showed up even more.

Summer Blog Blast Tour Schedule Day #4!

Elisha Cooper at Chasing Ray: "It was sort of like shopping, but with kids. Which brings me to something. Throughout the year, and the writing of the book, I tried to respect as much as possible that these were real kids living their lives (obvious, yes)."

Dar Williams at Fuse Number 8: "Usually the ten year olds ask me if I was like Amalee, while the eleven year olds ask about the editor, and the twelve year olds ask if I have a platinum record. Every group has been wonderful."

Jennifer Bradbury at Bildungsroman: "I think we're all storytellers at heart. And I think most of us use the material we've lived through to tell those stories to ourselves. So there's something about the way we remember something happening that often supersedes the event itself. And I sort of hate taking photos on vacation. My husband's gotten used to it now, but I'd almost rather not have the picture to diminish the memory. That said, I'm grateful my husband ignores my whining and manages to get some good pictures anyway."

E. Lockhart at The YA YA YAs

Mary Hooper at Miss Erin

Charles R. Smith at Writing and Ruminating: "Basically, I tried to tailor each poem’s style to each player’s game. For somebody like Tim Duncan, his game is based on fundamentals so his poem is written in a basic fundamental style. For somebody like Tracy McGrady, his poem moves fast the way he does on the court. I always try to challenge myself on every poem I do and the challenge was to match the style and game of each player."

Mary Pearson at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy

[Post title from Dar Williams.]

Here we go - Day #1 of the Summer Blog Blast Tour:

Adam Rex at Fuse Number 8:"The big news is that Frankenstein is getting married, and anyone who's been through a wedding knows it takes a full quarter of a picture book to plan properly, so there are a number of nuptially-themed poems. They have to find a caterer who can deal with all the different monsters' food allergies and dietary restrictions, for example. Frankenstein has to meet his future in-laws, the Bride has to tell them she's not entirely dead anymore. That sort of thing."

David Almond at 7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast: "I guess it comes from having a Catholic childhood. I struggled against the Catholicism for a long time, but there came a moment when I recognized that it would never go away, and when I also recognized that it was a kind of treasure house of language, imagery, ritual. So I just allowed it to influence my fiction."

R.L. Lafevers at Finding Wonderland:

Dave Schwartz at Shaken & Stirred:

Elizabeth Scott at Bookshelves of Doom:

Laurie Halse Anderson at Writing & Ruminating: "The turning point for me was when I working on the early (dreadful) drafts of Thank You, Sarah. I was struggling to figure out how to combine the history of Thanksgiving with the significant details of Sarah Hale’s life. The early drafts were written in that dry, dull, old-fashioned tone. I hated it. I hated every word that I pinned to the page. I felt like I had killed my story before anyone got the chance to read it."

Susan Beth Pfeffer at Interactive Reader:

[Post title from David Almond.]

Yesterday marked the beginning of Freedom to Read Week. Today the Pelham Public Library welcomes author Pearce Carefoote who will speak on censorship issues. Carefoote is the author of Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter.

Don't forget to check out the "Banned Book Challenge."

Freedom to Read Week is February 24 to March 1, 2008. The Pelham Public Library in Fonthill, Ontario, Canada welcomes Pearce Carefoote, archivist at the University of Toronto Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and author of Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter. Carefoote appears at the Fonthill Branch, 43 Pelham Town Square, Fonthill on Monday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Due to the overwhelming response of readers around the world, the Banned Book Challenge will be issued once again. Watch for the sign-up form soon. Readers are encouraged to set a goal for themselves for the number of challenged or banned books they would like to read between February 24 and June 30. Let us know on the soon-to-be-posted form, then let us know how you did. If you are not sure what to choose from, visit our LibraryThing by clicking on the logo or check out any number of sites listed on the sidebar.

Pearce J. Carefoote, author of Forbidden Fruit, talks about the underlying presumption of censorship.

The underlying presumption of censorship is that members of a society will be harmed if they are allowed to make informed choices for themselves about what they read or see. In essence, it is based on the very elitist premise that the uneducated masses need protection from ideas....If this paternalistic theory was ever valid, it is much more difficult to support in an era when the vast majority of the population in the West holds at least a high school diploma and is more technologically competent than any other generation in history. While weak, powerless, and voiceless populations -- children, for example -- will always need society's special protection to prevent their harm or exploitation, argumentation is always preferable to outright censorship; rather than advancing society, such censorship runs the risk of making it retrograde.

Forbidden Fruit: Banned, Censored, and Challenged Books from Dante to Harry Potter, is a wonderful new resource that gives readers the background and history on the banning of specific titles. Author Pearce J. Carefoote is a staff archivist at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto. In 2002, Carefoote won the OLA (Ontario Library Association) Anniversary Prize, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Award, and the Toronto Area Archivists Group Award.

Research for an exhibition of banned and challenged books in 2005 culminated in this book.

Its Canadian focus makes it a valuable resource for all schools and libraries.