squeetus

Hottest spring accessory: airline barf bag

Thanks, all, for the congrats as well as the bewilderment. I totally get bewilderment.

I'm back from Chicago and IRA. Here are a few crappy photos taken on phone cameras.

At TLA with the fabulous Karen Cushman! She authored two of my favs, The Midwife's Apprentice and Catherine, Called Birdy.I was so excited to meet her and literally devoured her latest, Alchemy and Meggy Swann. So much good reading lately, but more on that in another post.

 
With authors Robin Brande and Varian Johnson. We were at an authors and publishers reception and I'd snagged one of the room's only chairs, so when Robin and Varian came over to chat, they both kind of squatted on the floor before me. Someone thought it looked worshipful, so of course we played it up. Robin Brande was my first Squeetus Exclusive interview and Varian, it turns out, is a twin himself!

A wonderful event at Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL. Look at the gorgeous people. And I didn't throw up on any of them! A few ladies drove a couple of hours from Normal, IL, and introduced themselves as "your Normal fans." I knew I had some!

And with my grandma Edith on her 99th birthday, just 'cause. Isn't she gorgeous?

It's always so great to travel and meet everyone, partake of their passion for reading and for life. I am relieved that was my last planned trip. The flights were tough on sicko me. I was supposed to go to ALA in DC in June till I found out that at 24 weeks pregnant, I will measure the same size as a woman carrying one baby is at 40 weeks. Holy horses. Not surviving a 5 hour flight and a convention center in a muggy city in that condition. Doctor said no way, Josefina.

So I'm looking at that last photo and wondering if I should go back to bangs.

Fall 2010, new from Shannon Hale...

Many have asked me what I'm currently working on now and when they can expect a new Shannon Hale work to come forth. I'm happy to announce that what I'm working on now will come to fruition as soon as this September!

This project has been a tough one for me. While books are often mentally and emotionally demanding, this particular project has been physically so. Sleepiness is common, general aches and such, as well as extreme nausea and vomiting. In the MFA program, they didn't warn me about the vomiting. You'd think I'd abandon this project and find a new one that allowed me to keep down my dinner, but that's never been my style. Once I start a project, I see it through the end. Especially this one. Oh most especially this one.

I should mention that this is in fact a collaboration between me and my husband Dean; but to be fair, although he has had some hand in this project, I am shouldering the brunt of the work. I can't really blame him. This particular project is one that requires more of my expertise and abilities. But secretly I believe that if given the opportunity to do more of the work, Dean would say, "No, no, really, you're so much better at it. I'll just sit here and be your support system." I should also mention that the other Hale, one Nathan, had no part in this collaboration. We love his work and his partnership, but this was a project Dean and I really needed to do alone.

About nine weeks into the project, as part of the research Dean and I consulted an expert on this topic and learned, much to our surprise, that the reason this particular project has been so much more physically taxing than the previous ones was because it is not one, but in fact, two. Well, slap me silly, I didn't see that one coming. Perhaps it's like my Daisy Danger dilemma--one long book with a slightly truncated story or a trilogy with a little more depth? Except with this project, it's not up to me to decide. "Congratulations!" people say. "Two! Well done!" But I can't take credit. Sometimes you control the projects, and sometimes they control you. I am not the master of this one--I am merely the host. And thank goodness it's not a trilogy.

I will keep you updated on the progress of the project. I can't name an exact release date yet, and am not yet even certain of the projects' genres let alone titles. And given the focus I'm putting on these projects, my other work and travel will likely slow down significantly. But some projects are just that important--masterpieces, life's work.  And all artists must bow to the whim of the Muse.

Tasty graphic novel morsels

Hey Chicago-ites, I'll be speaking at the International Reading Association's annual conference next week and will be stopping by Anderson's bookstore in Naperville, Tuesday, April 27, at 7 pm. This is the last out-of-Utah signing I'll be doing for quite some time, perhaps 2-3 years. So come by!

Hey teachers, Bloomsbury just made teachers' guides to using calamity jack and rapunzel's revenge in the classroom! I think they look great, and they were created by a teacher according to NCTE and IRA standards. You can download the pdf for free from my website anytime. I'll have them permanently on my site in the rapunzel and jack sections. I'm thrilled that they did this. As we talked about last post, it can be hard for librarians and teachers who want to use graphic novels in schools to convince parents/administrators/other teachers that they are legitimate forms of literature and worth classroom study, and having official teachers' guides like this can help.

Several commenters asked for recommendations for graphic novels. Here are some that our family has enjoyed. These are all appropriate for younger readers. In another post I'll list some great YA and adult graphic novels too.

Tiny Titans - we love these! My 6-year-old will sit and read these alone more than any other book. They are about a bunch of superhero sidekicks (like Robin, Batgirl, Supergirl, and Cyborg) in elementary school. They're funny and simple and violence-free. My three-year-old enjoys them, but I think a 4th grader could easily dig these as well. I've heard some adults make fun of them for having superheroes without any fighting, but I love that about them. Have I mentioned we love these? Aw yeah, Titans!

Owly & Yam - both of these can seem kind of strange when you first look at them. They are all/mostly wordless graphic novels, and so accessible to kids or don't read yet, whether for age, language barrier, or other reasons. Both our kids love them. It took me a few reads to get into them myself, but now I heartily agree. Yam especially seems more in tune with the child mind than I could at first comprehend.

Bone - Everyone knows Bone. Funny and epic fantasy for young readers. I recommend the colored versions. I think the illustrations are a little easier to follow. There are several volumes so make sure you start with the first.

Babymouse - she's a sassy, grumpy, 4th grade mouse with big dreams. Fun to read aloud, as her dialog is witty and the narrator voice overs are often funny. After reading a book like this once to a kid, they are often eager to read it again alone.

Lunch Lady - another fun series. The Lunch Lady is a secret agent fighting crime, and three kids at school discover her secret and join in the adventures. Silly and action-packed.

Many of you have said you've only read our graphic novels, so I might want to prepare you that rapunzel and jack are different in structure and style from these others. GNs like Tiny Titans are episodic with several mini-stories. Each volume of Babymouse and Lunch Lady read like an episode of a TV show, while rapunzel and jack are more like a full-length feature film. (Someone in the biz told me yesterday that no one but Bloomsbury would have taken on an ambitious project like a 144-page full color, highly detailed story, which is very expensive to print, and I'm sure no one else but Nathan Hale would have committed a year to it.) I like that there are many different kinds of GNs for different readers.

What other GNs for young readers do you recommend?

Graphic novels: the great satan

re: last post, Charlotte's Web was the #1!

I was at TLA in San Antonio, Texas these past few days. I love Texas librarians! Seriously, librarian conferences rock. You meet up with old author friends and hang out with new librarian friends. I spoke on a panel about graphic novels with Jennifer Holm (Babymouse) and Jarrett Krosoczka (Lunch Lady). Good folk. At one point I got emotional (I hate when I do that) trying to express how grateful I am to librarians. It was so lame, because I know I sounded like a complete suck up, but I feel passionate about it, and in case I didn't express myself well, I want to try again here.

Graphic novels for kids are important for many reasons. Here are a few:

1. They provide an important transition book from picture books to chapter books.
2. They provide a storytelling hook for visual learners of any age.
3. They are the most likely kinds of books embraced by "reluctant readers"
4. They teach kids to interpret sequential art, a brain-taxing activity that teaches visual literacy, valuable in our increasingly graphical world.
5. They allow younger kids to stretch their reading abilities. (e.g. the vocabulary in rapunzel and jack is above most 4-8 year-olds, but younger kids are still willing to read them and can understand because the text is supported by visual storytelling. People I know who are life-long comics readers tend to have amazing vocabularies, and an advanced vocabulary is important for literacy.)
6. They require a different kind of brain work than reading prose and much, much more brain exercise than watching a movie.
7. Kids who will only read a certain genre of prose novel are more likely to leave their genre comfort zone for a graphic novel than a prose novel. A kid only reads fantasy? Offer a non-fiction or realistic fiction graphic novel.
8. Readers with disabilities, English as a second language, and other obstacles have often thrived with graphic novels.
9. Advanced readers also thrive with graphic novels, gaining insight from analyzing text-and-picture storytelling and uses of the visual medium. It's a highly creative exercise.
10. P.S. They're also fun.

Many adults are still hesitant about graphic novels. I've heard from many school librarians that when classes come in to check out books, some teachers will tell their students they can check out anything besides graphic novels. They should only check out "real books." Obviously not all teachers feel this way. I know many teachers who are passionate supporters of the medium. But others do. I hear the same thing from booksellers with regards to parents. A parent might be willing to buy a prose novel for a child, but not a graphic novel.

Why are so many adults down on this medium? A few reasons:

1. The fear that once kids start reading graphic novels, they'll only read graphic novels. (Studies have shown this fear false, and teens who read GNs are more likely to read other kinds of books for pleasure than their non-GN reading friends. There are those who only read comics...but I know those people, and if they weren't reading comics, they wouldn't be reading anything at all.)
2. The cultural bias against books with pictures. The goal, for many parents, is to wean their children from picture books. Aren't GNs a step back? (There are still words in GNs. Kids are still reading! And visual literacy is an important part of our world too. This idea is peculiarly American.)
3. The belief that graphic novels are, in fact. GRAPHIC! (The medium of sequential art doesn't necessitate violence and sexuality. Some GNs are graphic in that way, many are not.)
4. Generations of belief that comic books are trashy and no good. (Some of the best writers alive today are writing GNs. Again, the medium doesn't determine content. As Jarrett pointed out at TLA, Stephen King and Beverly Cleary write in the same medium.)

If it weren't for libraries, I don't think there would be enough of a market for graphic novels for young readers to validate their publication. Comic book stores are starting to carry more books for the younger set, but like the other book stores, their selection tends to be limited and I hear from them that the sales are not great. This is, I believe, because it's the adults doing the buying, not the kids. I think this will change, as the prejudice against GNs has been changing, but slowly.

And yet I hear from dozens of librarians (especially elementary and middle school librarians) that "I can't keep rapunzel's revenge on the shelf." You are far more likely to find calamity jack in a library than in a book store, and I think that's because a library is where the kid is doing the selecting. A school library is the place where a child is most likely to be able to pick out her own book, unsupervised by a parent or (sometimes) a teacher. A library is where children choose. A library is where children can discover what they love to read without someone trying to push them onto "harder" material or more "grown-up" books. A library is magic.

I hope I never come across as speaking in absolutes. Most of the teachers and parents I know are passionate supporters of any good books that can transform a non-reader into an eager reader. And I don't blame those who are hesitant or fearful of GNs. That's their own understanding. Meanwhile, libraries have been stocking manga and GNs years before anyone else caught up. Without libraries, I don't think books like rapunzel's revenge and calamity jack would ever have seen print. And I never would have had the inexpressible joy of receiving the dozens of emails and notes from parents who tell me, "My son/daughter never read a book in his/her life until your graphic novel. And now, he/she reads all the time." That is worth anything. Thanks, librarians. In a time when we're seeing libraries disappearing, book budgets cut, and librarians taken out of schools, I hope you know that the kid lit authors know what you do, why you're essential, and appreciate you. I vote for libraries.

The missing #1

Betsy Bird compiled votes for a list of the 100 greatest children's novels of all time. She's up to number 2. What will be number 1? Six Boxes of Books gathered the list in a more readable format if you want to peruse. It's a magnificent list. Here's the top ten as it stands:

2. Wrinkle in Time (Yay!)

3. Harry Potter 1

4. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Weep)

5. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

6. Holes

7. The Giver

8. The Secret Garden (sigh)

9. Anne of Green Gables (Love!)

10. The Phantom Tollbooth

What could be #1? You can browse through the previous 89 winners, but I can't think what's missing. Several other Harry Potters made the list as did the obvious Roald Dahls (I think). You got your Little Women, Westing Game, Hobbit, Pooh, Alice, Bridge to Terabithia, Kate DiCamillos, Harriet the Spy, Maniac Magee, Tuck Everlasting, Oz, Dark is Rising, Outsiders...

I don't think the Series of Unfortunate Events: A Bad Beginning would hit #1. Keep in mind that these were adults doing the voting (I didn't discover the poll until after the voting was over so I wasn't one of them) so it's not likely to be a recent popular book, but something adults cherish from their own childhood but that is still widely read today. ...Wait, maybe Charlotte's Web hasn't hit the list yet. I don't remember seeing it. Okay, if that one is still AWOL, then that's my vote. Any other options? And what would your personal top ten be? (just make it "besides all of Shannon's books" since that's a given. Right? Huh?) Remember, these are just children's novels, not picture books, non-fiction, or YA. Think 8-12 years old.

EDIT: the obscure "weep" after LWW was my reference to how this book made me weep whenever I read it because I wanted to go to Narnia so badly and couldn't. The yearning!

Tales from Inner Readerdom

I neglected to post my SLJ Battle of the Kids' Books judging results when it went live on the BOB site a couple of days ago. After Anita Silvey chose Tales from Outer Suburbia over Sweethearts of Rythmn and Julius Lester chose Storm in the Barn over When You Reach me, I had two graphic novels to choose from. Well, one is a highly illustrated collection of short stories. What a task! Here's what I wrote:

First up: Matt Phelan’s graphic novel Storm in the Barn. I loved the feel of this book. It’s 200 pages, and they flow effortlessly. The washed out blues, grays, and browns evoke the famine-striken land, a town in Kansas waiting years for rain in 1937. His style is so accessible, and he communicates action and emotion with simple lines and shading and minimal color. A flashback section and a story-within- the-story apply richer color, bringing the context of the setting into sharp definition.

The story itself is highly readable. Jack is one casualty of the drought. At age 10 or 11, he should be a farm hand, but there’s no farm to work unless rain returns. Other stories intertwine with Jack’s — Dorothy in Oz, Jack of fairy tale fame — adding meaning and texture.

The boy’s story bends from historical fiction to fairy tale when he sees flashes in an abandoned barn and believes a rain monster is hiding inside. Text is minimal, and the illustrations tell what needs to be told. A wonderful medium for this story, and a wonderful story. Well done, Matt Phelan!

The second contender is Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan. He wowed me with The Arrival, and I was excited to lay my hands on this lavishly illustrated collection of short stories. What a treasure.
All of Tan’s stories can be read for what they are–speculative fiction set in a real world. Or perhaps realistic fiction in a world of magical realism. Or somewhere in between. But of course the beauty of this genre is that readers can create their own metaphors for these tales. “Stick Figures” echoed for me colonized Australia, and the lingering guilt and sadness that the land once belong to others who were driven away. Silent ghosts, voiceless reminders. The same could be read for American Indians or other slaughtered and displaced peoples. Or it could be the land itself protesting–the trees that have been cut away springing back up.

Or dozens of other metaphors.

The last line of “Undertow” gave me chills each time I read it. Such unexpected hope! Such grace! Here, Tan reminds me of Raymond Carver at his best. His stories also evoke other great writers of short speculative fiction, like Kelly Link and Gabriel Garcia Marquez–what a dazzling feat for an illustrator! But after reading this, I have to consider Shaun Tan, master of the great wordless graphic novel, as a terrific writer as well. I’m not sure what the effect of these stories would be without the illustrations, but it doesn’t matter. The stories are vivid, the illustrations gorgeous, and the whole package is delectable.

My one quibble is with the cover. I don’t think this is the best illustration to define the collection. Let me just throw that out there in case others agree and the publisher rethinks that for paperback. But I love the bumpiness and raised font! I love tactile covers. And in all ways, the book is packaged beautifully.
Between the two, my heart goes to Tales from Outer Suburbia. They’re both obviously terrific books, but that one just stuck to me longer. I’m sure another judge could easily rule the other way. They aren’t written for the same audience. I’d say Storm in the Barn is for 8-12, while Outer Suburbia is 12-adult, but I wasn’t asked to consider age range or anything else. My job is simply to read two books and pick one.
And so I get an intimate glance into the capriciousness of judging books for awards! Nevertheless, I’m proud to send this book along to Walter Dean Myers. Well done, Shaun Tan!

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It was interesting for me to read Walter Dean Myers' results this morning. Wow, how differently he read Shaun Tan's book than I did. He wrote, "A different approach to a story? Absolutely! An interesting approach? Mildly. Compelling? No. After The Arrival I expected great things from Shaun Tan. I still do." His reading of "Stick Figures" was quite different than mine, and he didn't take the same sense of wonder from the stories that I did. This sort of exercise is most enlightening for me in terms of reader response. I was an ideal reader of Tan's book, and Myers was not. That doesn't mean that Tan's book is no good and I was wrong, or that is book is brilliant and Myers is wrong. There were plenty of smart, well-read, open-minded people who agreed with one or the other of us. So much of reading is what the reader brings to the text.

I found it also interesting that as a judge, I was looking for weakness in a book as much as strength. I was looking for a reason to dismiss one and so make the choice easier. If you're a Newbery committee member, you must feel the same way. There are hundreds of books! Please give me a reason to dismiss you so I can check it off my list and read another. Editors must feel the same. So many submissions! A strong weakness can be a godsend when you've got a huge pile of agent submissions on your desk. That's a rough reality, but true, I think. All the more reason to make sure that book is the absolutely strongest it can be before sending it out. Don't give them a reason to stop reading. But of course it all depends on what that editor (or judge, or reader) brings to the text, how they read your story, if they feel you and are willing to go along for the ride. God bless kindred spirit readers!

SLJ BOB goes on through next week. Tomorrow the zombie book is revealed--the book that gets resurrected from the dead to go to the final round, where it will join Marching for Freedom and The Lost Conspiracy in the hands of Katherine Paterson. Such suspense!

EDIT: No more April Fool's Day jokes for me! They seem to backfire. One lovely college-age reader was so upset by last year's, her mother wrote me asking me to apologize publicly. I'm reformed and starchly serious now...until I think of a joke that is backfire-proof.