I’m currently reading Alan Gratz’s book, Something’s Rotten. It’s a blatant take-off on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Every character is named after a Hamlet character, the main character named Hamilton. The plot echoes Hamlet: Hamilton’s father was murdered and he suspects his uncle, who has married his mother. And the book works! Why? It’s the power of myth.
Think of the movie, “O, Brother, Where Art Thou?”, which is a retelling of the Odyssey, the famous epic poem by the Greek Homer.
Or, look at the series, The Grimm Sisters. Sabrina and Daphne are the last living descendants of the Grimm Brothers, the famous collectors of folk and fairy tales in the 18th century. The sisters discover that the Grimms tales are based on true crimes. The sisters take on the “grim” responsibility of being detectives. The Author Michael Buckley says, “It’s what happens AFTER the happily ever after.”
3 Reasons to Borrow Mythic Power
Why would these two authors draw on tales that are woven into the warp and woof of our culture?
- High Interest. Because readers already know the basic tale, the fun is in how this author gives it a twist. Gratz sets Hamlet in Tennessee, where the Prince family owns a paper mill.
- Easily Plotted. Maybe. Again, the readers already know the basic plot. Or do they? The fun and challenge of basing a novel on a familiar myth is in adding twists and contemporary updates. In some ways, it’s simple, the plot is a given. But if all you do it repeat the old plot, it’s not going to gain wide acceptance.
- Emotional Power: Think about why these stories have lasted for hundreds of years. It’s the emotional power inherent in the story of a brother poisoning a brother and seizing his family and fortune. The Grimms fairy tales are boiled down to their essence by years of oral transmission until what is left shines brightly in our imagination. These authors are borrowing the power of myth, but then bending it to their own wills as they transform the story into a contemporary novel. You can do it, too.
For more reading:
- Any of Donna Jo Napoli’s books: she takes a familiar fairy tale and sets it in a specific country and specific time period. She spends lots of time doing the research on the historical setting.
- Winners of the Mythopoeic Award. This organi
Create Vivid Images to Bring a Novel to Life
“Vivid imagery makes a story world come alive,” says Stacy Whitman, Associate Editor at Wizards of the Coast (Update March, 2010: Whitman is now editorial director of the Tu Books imprint at Lee & Low.) Everyone agrees that a writer’s ability to create an image in a reader’s head through their words is integral to fiction and effective novels. When writers and editors push toward imagery vivid enough to transport readers to new worlds, there are many options.
A book Whitman has edited is In the Serpent’s Coils: Hallomere (Wizards of the Coast, 2007), by Tiffany Trent, the first of a ten-book dark-fantasy novel series called Hallomere. (Update: Wizards of the Coast is no longer publishing stand alone fantasy novels and this series is out of print, only available from used book sources.) The series features six girls from around the world who are drawn together to rescue their missing schoolmates and prevent catastrophe in an epic battle between dark fey (or supernatural) worlds and the mortal world.
Vivid nature imagery sets mood. Whitman describes this short scene as having vivid nature imagery that sets a dreamy, magical tone for the novel, while emphasizing the Fey’s connection to nature:
But then she saw a dark shimmer by the hemlocks again. The tall man turned, as though he felt her gaze. He wore shadows deeper than twilight, and, as before, she couldn’t see his face. But she felt his gaze, felt it through the swift gasp of her heart, the seizure in her knees. The Captain raised his hand to her, and she saw, despite the dusk, that his hand was shiny and scarlet, as though wet with blood.
Stark, direct description sets mood. Alan Gratz creates a different sort of mood in his award winning book, The Samurai Shortshop (Dial Books, 2006), through what he describes as stark and direct description. In one of the most emotional openings of a story in young adult literature, Toyo helps his Uncle Koji perform the Japanese ritual suicide, seppuku.
Now Toyo sat in the damp grass outside the shrine as his uncle moved to the center of the mats. Uncle Koji’s face was a mask of calm. He wore a ceremonial white kimono with brilliant red wings–the wings he usually wore only into battle. He was clean-shaven and recently bathed, and he wore his hair in a tight topknot like the samurai of old. Uncle Koji knelt on the tatami mats keeping his hands on his hips and his arms akimbo.
Both Gratz and Trent are paying particular
I'm just back from a *fabulous* trip to North Carolina and California, but I'm going to wait until I have some photos to post about it. In other news: School Library Journal is going to have a "Battle of the (Kids') Books" in April. It will work something like the NCAA basketball tournament, with books going head to head in a bracket. Along with Lois Lowry, Jon Scieszka, and John Green, I get to be one of the judges. I have no idea how this is going to work, but it sounds like fun, don't it?
Here's what I read on the trip:
SAVVY, by Ingrid Law. Upper middle-grade/YA, one of this year's Newbery Honor titles. Mibs Beaumont turns 13: What will her 'savvy' be, the special power that manifests itself in each of her family members on that birthday? Cool premise, wonderful characters: I was especially impressed with the author's skill in depicting the secondary characters with brevity and precision. I admit to having to swallow hard to get past a couple of plot points--Grandpa's savvy didn't seem believable to me the way the others do, and did the parents really let the road trip go on that long!?--but cheering for Mibs and her cohorts got me through.
NATION, by Terry Pratchett. YA, Printz Honor (gotta love those award lists!). A boy alone after a disaster on a tropical island meets a girl shipwrecked there; together they must rebuild civilization. OK, I was dubious. But this is Pratchett. I knew he would make it work, and it does. Totally.
THE BROOKLYN NINE (MG) and SOMETHING ROTTEN (YA), by Alan Gratz. The author was signing next to me at the North Carolina Reading Association conference, so I bought one of his books and he graciously gave me a copy of another. Alan once told me that while he was collecting a few rejections for his first book, (I think I've got this right) he heard me give a talk on how I try to structure my novels. It was a 'light-bulb' moment for him, and he went home, revised the manuscript, and sold it the next time out (SAMURAI SHORTSTOP). Since then he's gone from strength to strength, with four novels now published in just a few years. He signed my copy of BROOKLYN, "To Linda Sue Park--my inspiration!" Wow.
ROTTEN is a retelling of Hamlet. Yeah, that Hamlet. Moxie, huh? Very clever and nicely done. THE BROOKLYN NINE is nine linked stories about baseball in nine generations of one family. Now you might expect me to like this, baseball and all that, but just because a book is about baseball doesn't mean I'm automatically going to like it. That said, I did like this one--a lot--and what I like most about it is how each story is truly different in subject matter from the others...proving that a love of sport can be far more than a one-dimensional interest, that it can enrich a person's life and enable them to give back in many varied ways.
HARPER LEE, by Kerry Madden. MG biography. More moxie: to take on writing about one of the world's most beloved authors--who is still living and refuses to grant interviews? Maybe you can't ever get to know someone just by reading about them, but this book provides a clear glimpse of the woman who gave the world the gift of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Respectful without fawning, straightforward and still beautifully written. Applause!
Went to the library yesterday. Got a BIG pile of books and can't wait to start plowing through them. First up: Jonathan Stroud's HEROES OF THE VALLEY.
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A LONG WALK TO WATER
THE 39 CLUES
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