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I figured, since I live with you real live tweens, it is high time that I have them write some of the book recommendations that appear on this blog.  Tween 2 read The Imaginary before school was out, and she loved it!  The following is what she has to say about it!

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Junior book series – do they sell? Often it is a question of semantics. Do kids love them? That answer is a no-brainer and when they are as first-rate as these are, it’s no wonder why. Hot on the heels of the sensationally popular Eric Vale series by Michael Gerard Bauer is Secret Agent Derek […]

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I figured this was fitting to post today as I am sending my own 10 year old off to sleep away camp today!

Resident non-reader Charlie Joe may just have gotten himself in over his head this time.  In a moment of temporary craziness and trying to please his parents, Charlie Joe agreed to 3 weeks at a camp for smarty pants kids.  Camp Ritubukkee.  Pronounced Read-a-Bookie.  For real.  Now that the time has come, he is pretty much in shock about the whole thing.  At least his bud Katie Friedman will be there, and Nareem from school will be there too.

The camp schedule is filled with "workshops", which Charlie Joe knows is just code for classwork.  He cannot believe that kids actually acquiesce to go to what is essentially summer school.  Charlie Joe is also a bit bummed because he had just started hanging around with Zoe, and if he had the summer off like a normal kid, that might just have gone somewhere.

Charlie Joe doesn't exactly get off the a stellar start at camp.  At school kids know him and know that he wields his sense of humor like a finely sharpened sword.  Here, his anti-reading stance and his sarcasm aren't appreciated.  Charlie Joe decides that it's going to be in everybody's best interests for him to try to de-dorkify these kids...get them to relax a little bit and enjoy the summer.

What Charlie Joe doesn't expect is to get sucked into the world of reading (just a bit), to use his devious brain for the greater good, and to genuinely like some of these campers.

Tommy Greenwald has created a reluctant reader character who is incredibly authentic.  Charlie Joe doesn't have trouble reading, he just can't be bothered.  I know several kids like this.  By putting Charlie Joe in a camp with kids who pretty much adore learning, there is super wide appeal to this title.  The writing is tight, the voice is authentic and I love the fact that unlike other series that aim for this audience, Charlie Joe isn't mean.  I had the pleasure of meeting Tommy at ALA in Chicago this summer, and was super pleased to relate the story of my own real life reluctant reader really taking to this series.  When kids want a step up from the Wimpy Kid titles, send them over to Charlie Joe!

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I am a child of the 1970s, so of course I saw Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in the movie theatres right when they came out.  What kid didn't?  I did not, however, keep up with the series and see the other movies.  As my neighbor Nick (14yo) always points out, "Stacy, why do you keep saying you saw the first three?  You really didn't, you know.  You saw Episodes 4, 5, and 6!".  Yes, I know.  I put this out there to let you know that even though I am not particularly well versed in the new/old Star Wars movies, I got a tremendous amount of enjoyment out of this graphic novel/ illustrated novel hybrid.

Roan Novachez has always known that he is "destined to attend Pilot Academy Middle School and become the GREATEST star pilot in the GALAXY." (p. 1)  But destiny seems to take a wrong turn for most of us in middle school, doesn't it?  Roan's friends all start receiving their acceptances to the academy, but his letter seems to be taking longer than everyone else's.  Instead of following his brother Dav's footsteps into the pilot life, Roan receives his rejection letter from the school.  He is devastated.

Soon, however, he receives a letter from the Jedi Academy.  Complete with a hand written note by Yoda himself, Roan is invited to attend the school even though most kids are accepted when they are toddlers and Roan himself didn't even apply.  It seems rather curious.

When Roan gets to the academy, he really feels like a fish out of water.  The other kids been there for a while, and they all seem to be able to use the force in controlled ways.  Roan is working on figuring out not only the force, but how to navigate the typical middle school things that all kids deal with no matter what planet they are from.  Things like dealing with bullies, figuring out where to sit in the cafeteria, opening his combination lock, and navigating a dance!  There are some things unique to Roan's situation as well - trying to understand what the heck Yoda is talking about, wielding a light saber, surviving a camping trip involving Wookies!

This is a fun and laugh-out-loud look into middle school that happens to be situated in a Star Wars culture.  Readers needn't be super well versed in Star Wars to enjoy Roan's adventures.  The cover will definitely attract younger readers, but I do think that the audience that will get the most enjoyment out of the story are 4th-6th graders who are wading into similar waters.

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I told myself that while I was at ALA, I wouldn't pick up arcs.  Then a school marketing person handed me two arcs, and publishers gave some to me, and you know how it goes!  The result is that I've been reading a bunch, and now that it's summer and my commute is simply from my bed to the lake, I actually have some time to blog.

The first up, is Ellen Potter's new book Otis Dooda: Strange But True.  Potter has stepped out of her wheelhouse with this illustrated novel for the younger set, but since Potter is writing it, you know the writing is tight.

Otis and the rest of the Dooda family are making a move to NYC.  They are moving into the 35 story Tidwell Towers, which impresses Otis since it looks like it's made up of LEGO blocks!  Otis notices the automatic door and thinks that moving is "kind of cool, like we were moving into a Price Chopper Supermarket!" (p8)  The automatic doors aren't the only thing that is different from Otis' old place...there seems  to be a kid skulking in a potted plant in the lobby.  It turns out that he gives everyone the shakedown for candy and other goods when they come into the building, and if you don't pay up he curses you!

Otis finds this out the hard way, refusing to sacrifice his homemade LEGO lie detector.  Otis gets the details when he befriends Perry, a kid on his floor with the strangest looking and smelliest dog you've ever seen.  One of the great things about Tidwell Towers is that there are lots of kids, and before long Otis is hanging out with Perry, Cat and Boris and they are hatching plans to put the kibosh on the plant guy.

What follows is an often hilarious tale of the often dysfunctional apartment slash big city life.  As I said, this isn't what I would necessarily expect from Potter, however, I know at my library I have daily requests for "something with lots of pictures, like Wimpy Kid", and this fits the bill.  Strange parents, a creepy older brother, rats and poodles,  friends with parents with odd jobs, and trying to dodge the inevitable summer enrollment in classes all come into play.  The humor is sly and horse read oriented at the same time, and readers will likely laugh out loud along the way.

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Wonderstruck
By Brian Selznick
Scholastic Press
$29.99
ISBN: 978-0545027892
Ages 9 and up
On shelves September 13, 2011

Hype. What’s the point? A publisher believes that a book is going to be big so they crank up the old hype machine and do everything in their power to draw attention to it long before its publication date. That’s what they did for Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck and I was sad to see it. As far as I was concerned, Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret was too tough an act to follow. Here you had a book that managed to get hundreds of librarians across the nation of America to redefine in their own minds the very definition of “picture book”. Cabret was remarkable because it combined words and pictures in a manner most closely resembling a film. Indeed the whole plot of the book revolved around filmmaking so what would be the point of writing another book in the same vein? If Cabret credits its success in part to its originality, doesn’t that give his Wonderstruck a handicap right from the start? You’d think so, but you might also forget something about Cabret. While the art was spectacular and the plotting just fine, the writing was merely a-okay. By no means a detriment to the book, mind you. Just okay. And maybe that’s partly why Wonderstruck works as well as it does. The art is just as beautiful as Cabret’s, the plotting superior, and the writing not just good, but fantastic. Where Cabret wowed readers with spectacle, Wonderstruck hits ‘em where it hurts. Right in the heart. For once, we’re dealing with a book that is actually worth its own hype.

Ben: Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, June 1977. Rose: Hoboken, New Jersey, October 1927. Ben’s Story – written: Newly orphaned when his mother dies, Ben comes to believe that he has a father, hitherto unknown, living in New York City. When an accident involving a telephone and a bolt of lightning renders him deaf, he sets out for the big city in search of clues to who his father really is. Rose’s Story – seen almost solely in pictures: A seeming prisoner in her own home, Rose too sets out for New York City to see the actress Lillian Mayhew for reasons of her own. The two children both end up in The American Museum of Natural History and both discover something there that will help to give them what they need to solve their own problems. And in that discovery, they will find one another.

I’ll just state right here and now that you could probably tell from the opening paragraph of this review that it’s extraordinarily difficult to talk about Wonderstruck without invoking Hugo Cabret in the same breath. This is mostly because of the unique written/image-driven style Selznick utilizes in both of these books. It’s not an unheard of technique, alternating written passages with visual ones, but it’s rarely done this well. What strikes me as significant, though, is that the style is chosen f

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The huge success of The Wimpy Kid series was soon followed by a spate of copycat publishing. This kind of “borrowed idea” publishing happens after every bestseller and it’s pointless to complain. But with Wimpy Kid, some publishers seem to have missed the main lesson. So we see countless new books rolled out about dorks and losers, nerds and geeks, whereas I’ve always maintained that a big part of the Wimpy Kid’s success was one of format over content. The books looked great, inviting, funny, accessible. They were illustrated!

I don’t think it’s a mystery: readers, especially reluctant readers, like pictures in their novels. They like the text broken up, with multiple entry points along the way. Witness the line of “illustrated classics,” which have been around only since forever.

We’ve seen it with Captain Underpants. Seen it with the Geronimo Stilton, first published in Italy. But also think of a book like Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Caberet, which effectively used illustrations to serve and deepen an already sophisticated manuscript. The book was a revelation — but it also taught us something we’ve known for decades. Yes, it’s more expensive to illustrate books, but those illustrations can broaden that book’s appeal. Look at the terrific job Matthew Cordell did with Justin Case, written by the very talented Rachel Vail. My point: A book doesn’t have to be a cliche in order for it be illustrated.

After that, let the number crunchers do the math.

Quick story about copycat publishing. I was at a book convention, long ago, and had the opportunity to hang out with the president of a small publishing company. A friendly guy, he specialized in down-market books. That is, cheap, affordable books that came in at the right price point, undercutting the competition. He had recently made a boatload of money by ripping off the Where’s Waldo books. As we drove in his expensive car, he told me with glee about the exact eureka moment when he had the idea for his successful new series of books. I thought to myself at the time, “Wow, he’s telling me with great pride about the day he got the idea . . . to steal the idea!” It was kind of spectacular, and a publishing moment I’ve never forgotten.

I had once hoped that my book, Justin Fisher Declares War!, would be illustrated. It had a funny main character, school-based adventures, and was written on an easy, accessible level for middle-grade readers. Unfortunately, my publisher did not share my view in the case of this particular book.

Which is why I’m so pleased to share these student illustrations. You see, I just spent an incredibly happy week in State College, PA, visiting five different schools along the way. After one such visit to Corl Street Elementary, I was presented with a gift that included a letter from Sue Harter. She explained that two teachers, Mrs. Evans and Mr. Schmidt, had rea

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So, what was the release date of this book? November 9th or something?  Well, it left our shelf on that day and didn't come back until Friday.  I snagged it and used a couple of commutes to get it read so that I can put it on the shelf to disappear for the next 3 months!

Greg and Rowley are on the outs.  Greg is considering his options for new friends, but he has to face the fact that they are few and far between.  Christopher Brownfield is more of a summer friend (he's really great for keeping mosquitos away!) and Tyson Sanders has a bathroom habit that's hard overlook.

More is changing in Greg's life than just his body (a fact that he can't avoid thanks to  his teacher insisting showers happen after PE and his mother giving him an embarrassing puberty book).  His mother has decided to go back to school.  Since she is not around so much, Greg, his brothers and father are left to fend for themselves for dinner, cleaning and getting ready for school often to disasterous results, as you can imagine.

One of the best segments in the book happens when the school has a lock-in sleep over.  After all of the games and cellphones are confiscated, the fun begins with ice-breaker games, too many chaperones and an incident involving body parts and polaroid cameras! 

There were fewer laugh-out-loud moments in this installment, and Greg isn't really growing too much as a character, however, tweens are still eating up the series.  The vignette style means that readers generally will recognize their lives in the book somewhere, whether it's having to take care of an egg for health class, being locked in at school for a sleepover, or having a parent who goes back to work.  The stories are solidly in tween territory now with issues of friendship, puberty, family and the search for self swirling through the pages.

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The Popularity Papers: Research for the Social Improvement and General Betterment of Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang
By Amy Ignatow
Amulet Books (an imprint of Abrams)
$15.95
ISBN: 978-0-8109-8421-9
Ages 9-12
On shelves now

There are good and bad results that occur when a book like Diary of a Wimpy Kid hits the stratosphere. On the one hand, suddenly publishers are a lot more open-minded about breathing life into books that mix text and images in new and unique ways. The door opens a little wider for unconventional titles that straddle a variety of writing genres and styles and (normally) don’t win any literary awards. That’s the good. The bad thing is that as a result any book that tries to make any headway in the market using pictures as well as text (and PARTICULARLY if it has a diary/journal format) is on some level going to be slapped with a “Diary of a Wimpy Kid Wannabe” label by the critics out there unwilling to read it closely. Did I judge The Popularity Papers by Amy Ignatow too harshly when I glanced at its cover for the first time? Absolutely. But I flipped it over to peruse the back and found, to my utter amazement and downright shock, that the picture there had me laughing out loud. From out of nowhere! Without another thought I checked it out of my library and read it that night in a single sitting. Funny is hard. Funny in a journal format is harder. And funny in a journal format with a plot that not only tracks but also kinda makes you feel for the characters? Let’s just say that this Amy Ignatow woman is a force to be reckoned with.

Lydia Goldblatt and Julie Graham-Chang are two smart cookies. Some girls going into their last year before middle school would confront the enigma of popularity by either moaning or changing themselves beyond all recognition. Lydia and Julie have a much better plan. First, they have this notebook where Julie (the artistic one) can record their observations. The mission? To stealthily watch all the popular girls they know so as to best determine how to someday be popular themselves. Lydia (the brave one) will subject herself to rigorous testing, whether it involves bleaching off a chunk of her hair or joining an eskrima class (otherwise known as stick fighting). Along the way they attempt to finagle cell phones out of their parental units (with unfortunate results), deal with a Norwegian crush, and have a falling out that may or may not put an end to their friendship. Being popular may be tough but attaining it? Hilarious.

I’ll get to the sheer unique humor of the book in a second, but first I want to give full credit to the storytelling. The other day a writer asked me, “What is it about a female character that makes you want to like them?” I responded the usual answers of “a sense of humor” and “empathy” but it’s a tough question. Why do people connect so directly with the characters in the Harry Potter series, but don’t feel as touched by other fantasy folks? In the case of this particular book,

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When I decided to write this entry, I didn't know Brian Selznick was going to win the Caldecott for The Invention of Hugo Cabret. But it doesn't surprise me. Nor am I surprised at the discussions of what it means to have something other than a picture book win the Caldecott. We're living in interesting times, after all.

As a writer and illustrator much given to despair at the glutted picture book market, I'm glad to see the industry publishing titles that incorporate the length and depth of novels with the luminous visual storytelling of picture books. I hope that what I'm seeing is not just a fad, but the birth of a new genre.

As a child, I wondered why grown up books didn't have pictures. How dull. When my reading skills hit midgrade level, I read those "dull" words-only stories voraciously, and no longer cared that the books were without images.

Still, an intriguing cover image would draw me back again and again as I read, and I would try to fit what I saw to the words within. And the world of picture books never lost its enchantment-- I savored childhood favorites, as well as books like Kit Williams' Masquerade, that offered ideas for adults in a format usually reserved for children. I pored over an exhibit of medieval books of hours in college.

Later I discovered graphic novels-- Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize "Special Award" winning Maus (the award committee wasn't sure how to classify it), and Alan Moore's more traditional comic series, Watchmen. I thought of Hugo Cabret as a graphic novel-- likewise Clive Barker's Abarat-- because both incorporated images throughout the usually forbidden turf of the novel.

The first book to arrive in my mailbox for this year's Cybils graphic novel nominees was Ruth McNally Barshaw's wonderful Ellie MacDoodle. How cool, I thought. A graphic novel without frames, for the younger set.

It had images throughout. The story didn't work without the images, even though it wasn't organized in the traditional comic style panels. My kids immediately snagged the book and sang its praises-- my oldest said that even though it had a girl for a main character, the boys in his class would love it.

But as our panel discussed what makes a graphic novel, we sadly concluded that it didn't fit, and shipped it off to the midgrade panelists. I learned that Hugo Cabret and Abarat were not graphic novels either. Current graphic novel definitions include serialized art as the mode of storytelling, without breaks for long chunks of text outside of the visual format, even though there may be captions within the serial artwork.

The problem is that I'm not sure the hybrid stories, like Ellie, and Hugo, and Abarat, really fit under the general heading of midgrade(or YA), either.

A story which relies significantly on visual storytelling has a different shape and mode of expression than an imageless novel. It has the advantage of incorporating some of the nonverbal context for ideas, leading to some ambiguity in interpretation that may not be there in the novel. It has the possibility of using visual double entendres and symbols. It may not fare as well in detailing character's thoughts and conversations, or in rich language... or perhaps it might.

In any case, my feeling is that is a different beast from either the graphic novel designation or the novel designation, and deserves a place of its own on the shelves.

If you read comics, you know that many comic authors and illustrators are less than thrilled with the "graphic novel" designation. Some see it as taking a form meant purely for enjoyment and making it fodder for dissertations. Others see it as a way for publishers to make a buck in a new and interesting way. Both criticisms are valid. However, I think it's worth looking at this process from a different angle-- perhaps a historical one.

The Gutenberg press brought books within the reach of ordinary people, but at a price. The gorgeous illuminations of the books of hours, with their many hued inks, were too expensive to mass-produce. Books became largely monochromatic. In the 1900s, better printing technology brought a resurgence of color, though mostly still limited to shorter publications--book covers, magazines, comic books, 32 page picture books, and the like.

Modern technology shrinks the price gap between black ink and colored ink, and producing full color books (though labor intensive for artists) is now reasonable. When I look at the graphic novel and hybrid/illustrated novel designations, I see a population of readers and publishers rediscovering and exploring the possibilities of combining images and text in 2-D storytelling.

These books rise out of the comic tradition in much the way that rock and roll rose out of the blues-- taking some of the same ideas, merging them with ideas from other sources, and then running in a new direction.

Will these hybrid illustrated novels eventually be re-defined as graphic novels, or find their own unique designation? Will our current understanding of graphic novels remain as it is, or return to the traditional comics designation? I wonder.

I think we will see this genre deepen and expand in the next 20 years, and I have no idea what it will bring to us-- but I'm very much looking forward to finding out.

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As it's the 30th anniversary summer of the release of Star Wars, I'm going to put out some ABC illustrations! Starting with everyone's favorite Mon Calamari admiral.

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