I'm certainly not the first person to write a review of Newbery award winning author Neil Gaiman, but his books are so beautiful that I cannot help making my recommendation. In particular I am in love with The Graveyard Book and His picture book Instructions. The Graveyard Book which Gaiman says is like The Jungle Book with ghosts instead of animals, is such an incredible read. At times funny, sweet, sad and positively chilling, it is a very engaging story about Bod, a boy raised by ghosts in a graveyard. It is one of those books that leaves you with a fresh, exhilarated feeling after it's over, like you've just been reminded that life has infinite possibilites. It is so easy to be jaded with the world these days that I think books like are true treasures. And because Neil Gaiman is an author who is incredibly giving to his readers, there are videos of his book tour for The Graveyard Book wherein he reads each and every chapter aloud. Go check out the link above. You won't be sorry. :)
Instructions holds a similar message, being a set of instructions for traversing through a fairy tale world. The instructions have a deeper meaning that can be applied to our own world, however, and that is what makes the little book so beautiful. When I was a kid, I had a very active imagination which my mom encouraged frequently. I can imagine her reading this book with me, and the wonder that I would have felt at a smaller age. It would have really been right up my alley.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
On my shelf
I have so many books on my reading list right now that it is almost overwhelming. If the work of reading through it all wasn't so much fun, I would run screaming never to return to the land of sanity. Finger pointers may keep to themselves that this has already happened, and so is unlikely to happen again.
I have two books in particular that I am dying to write commentaries on, and I hope to get to that sometime this week. I've been listening to Lili St. Crow's Strange Angel series on audio whilst knitting socks over the holiday weekend, and am enjoying them quiet a lot. Once I'm through with them, I plan to move straight into The Grim Legacy by Polly Shulman. I found this one on the shelf last week and brought it home the same day. It's been burning a hole on my bookshelf ever since. Can't wait. Then it's a detour into adult urban fantasy for Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon. It's been called "the Neverwhere for the X generation" and there is simply no way I can pass that by. So... that's my reading agenda for the week.
That being said, I wanted to open my big virtual mouth and comment on something I encountered at work today. I had a mother come in with her son who was "not a reader" searching for a book on the sixth grade level that might hold his interest long enough for a book report for school. Another requirement being that the book must be appealing to mom since she would be reading it as well so she could help him.... I asked a few questions about his interests and other books he'd enjoyed in the past and made a few suggestions based on his and his mother's answers. But what caught my attention was that she picked up Artemis Fowl and said he'd brought it home from school recently. That's a good starting point that I can work with. My mind went straight to Percy Jackson and a few others... until Mom finished her sentence.
"And I just thought how dare they have that in a school! I didn't like that one at all."
Okay, I thought to myself, Now we are playing a whole new ball game. The choices narrowed instantly to about a quarter of what they had been. The boy picked up a Gaurdians of Gahoole book and said he might like to read it. She said no, on principal of it being a series that he would probably never finish. He said he liked Goosebump books, so I showed him some of R. L. Stine's slightly older books. These were vetoed as well. After making a few more suggestions I removed myself to help other customers, leaving them to look through our selection on their own. But when it came time for them to check out, I was appalled to see that Mom had chosen a "Children's Classics" edition of Moby Dick. The Children's Classics books are abridged and rewritten for children a bit younger than our sixth grade not-a-reader, and I informed Mom of this as diplomatically as I could. But she was set on it. It is, after all, a classic, is it not? And the plot is the same, yes? Yes. Yes.
So my first lament is this: MOBY DICK?!?!?! I mean really? He's in sixth grade. He probably can't even say the name out loud without snickering! And yes, it is a classic. That is not being disputed. But how much appeal does the story hold for a sixth grader? Who likes Goosebumps and is "not a reader"? I'll wager that the appeal is scarce on the ground.
And for my second lament: If you let him pick something that actually interests him, he might actually enjoy the project and cease to be "not a reader". I only put the phrase in quotations because it was repeated several times to the point of sounding a bit odd to me. Stop telling your kid that he isn't a reader. The more you hear something, the more you believe it. Would you tell your son that he was not a thinker? Not a looker? Not an athlete or dancer or musician? I was raised by a mother who constantly told me that I could be and do anything at all. Possibilities were infinite in my childhood dreams. I can't fathom being told what I'm not over and over that way. I wanted to tell this mom, "Why are you telling him that he's not a reader? He might be. He can be. Let him tell you what he is! He ought to know better than you." But people in aprons do not get to say such things. Until they go home and blog anonymously.
And for the final lament: Artemis Fowl is offensive? Better send your kid to school with cotton in his ears then, because he'll be exposed to a heap worse than that just walking down the hallway. He's in the sixth grade for heaven's sake. Untie the apron strings. The book is in the school library because it appeals to kids. Yes. It's got some magic in it. So does Cinderella, Toy Story and pretty much all of children's literature and other entertainment. The Jungle Book has talking animals, a form a magic to some minds, and that is definitely a classic.
Censorship is a violation of first amendment rights. Book banning is censorship. And if you don't think that children deserve first amendment rights, or don't have the capacity to exercise them with reason and caution, consider this: Children are in a developmental fast lane that is only open for a short window of time. If they are denied the means through which to seek new ideas and creativity, they lose out on so much opportunity to grow as maturing members of society. Let your kids think! Please! Let them use that lump of squishy, spaghetti like stuff between their ears! It's good for them, I swear. It's good for all of us.
I have two books in particular that I am dying to write commentaries on, and I hope to get to that sometime this week. I've been listening to Lili St. Crow's Strange Angel series on audio whilst knitting socks over the holiday weekend, and am enjoying them quiet a lot. Once I'm through with them, I plan to move straight into The Grim Legacy by Polly Shulman. I found this one on the shelf last week and brought it home the same day. It's been burning a hole on my bookshelf ever since. Can't wait. Then it's a detour into adult urban fantasy for Sixty-One Nails by Mike Shevdon. It's been called "the Neverwhere for the X generation" and there is simply no way I can pass that by. So... that's my reading agenda for the week.
That being said, I wanted to open my big virtual mouth and comment on something I encountered at work today. I had a mother come in with her son who was "not a reader" searching for a book on the sixth grade level that might hold his interest long enough for a book report for school. Another requirement being that the book must be appealing to mom since she would be reading it as well so she could help him.... I asked a few questions about his interests and other books he'd enjoyed in the past and made a few suggestions based on his and his mother's answers. But what caught my attention was that she picked up Artemis Fowl and said he'd brought it home from school recently. That's a good starting point that I can work with. My mind went straight to Percy Jackson and a few others... until Mom finished her sentence.
"And I just thought how dare they have that in a school! I didn't like that one at all."
Okay, I thought to myself, Now we are playing a whole new ball game. The choices narrowed instantly to about a quarter of what they had been. The boy picked up a Gaurdians of Gahoole book and said he might like to read it. She said no, on principal of it being a series that he would probably never finish. He said he liked Goosebump books, so I showed him some of R. L. Stine's slightly older books. These were vetoed as well. After making a few more suggestions I removed myself to help other customers, leaving them to look through our selection on their own. But when it came time for them to check out, I was appalled to see that Mom had chosen a "Children's Classics" edition of Moby Dick. The Children's Classics books are abridged and rewritten for children a bit younger than our sixth grade not-a-reader, and I informed Mom of this as diplomatically as I could. But she was set on it. It is, after all, a classic, is it not? And the plot is the same, yes? Yes. Yes.
So my first lament is this: MOBY DICK?!?!?! I mean really? He's in sixth grade. He probably can't even say the name out loud without snickering! And yes, it is a classic. That is not being disputed. But how much appeal does the story hold for a sixth grader? Who likes Goosebumps and is "not a reader"? I'll wager that the appeal is scarce on the ground.
And for my second lament: If you let him pick something that actually interests him, he might actually enjoy the project and cease to be "not a reader". I only put the phrase in quotations because it was repeated several times to the point of sounding a bit odd to me. Stop telling your kid that he isn't a reader. The more you hear something, the more you believe it. Would you tell your son that he was not a thinker? Not a looker? Not an athlete or dancer or musician? I was raised by a mother who constantly told me that I could be and do anything at all. Possibilities were infinite in my childhood dreams. I can't fathom being told what I'm not over and over that way. I wanted to tell this mom, "Why are you telling him that he's not a reader? He might be. He can be. Let him tell you what he is! He ought to know better than you." But people in aprons do not get to say such things. Until they go home and blog anonymously.
And for the final lament: Artemis Fowl is offensive? Better send your kid to school with cotton in his ears then, because he'll be exposed to a heap worse than that just walking down the hallway. He's in the sixth grade for heaven's sake. Untie the apron strings. The book is in the school library because it appeals to kids. Yes. It's got some magic in it. So does Cinderella, Toy Story and pretty much all of children's literature and other entertainment. The Jungle Book has talking animals, a form a magic to some minds, and that is definitely a classic.
Censorship is a violation of first amendment rights. Book banning is censorship. And if you don't think that children deserve first amendment rights, or don't have the capacity to exercise them with reason and caution, consider this: Children are in a developmental fast lane that is only open for a short window of time. If they are denied the means through which to seek new ideas and creativity, they lose out on so much opportunity to grow as maturing members of society. Let your kids think! Please! Let them use that lump of squishy, spaghetti like stuff between their ears! It's good for them, I swear. It's good for all of us.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Putting the Show on the Road: An Introduction
I keep hesitating, not sure if what I have to say is interesting or unusual enough for anyone out there to listen. All I want to do is share my experiences in literature with others. I work in a book shop, so I get to do just that at work every now and again. It's a great gig, and I love it. But more often than not, I feel ill equipped to make suggestions to our customers. So many of our customers come in searching for the new Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, Oprah Book Club or Social Science book they saw on television, and while I do not mean any disrespect to any of these authors or genres, they just aren't my style. I like my literature a little less main stream... and a little less grown up.
I can't tell you how many times I have been regarded with dubious, condescending or just plain baffled expressions when I admit to a customer that I haven't read the latest Stephen King novel because I spend most of the precious little reading time I get reading children's literature. "Why?" they ask. "Why would you want to read kid's books? Aren't you a little old for that?" And suddenly I feel like Bridget Jones being asked yet again when she's going to settle down. More and more adults are reading kid and teen fiction these days. Just look at the phenomenons behind the Harry Potter Series and the Twilight Saga. Nearly as many adults read them as do children and teens. And yet some adults are still surprised to hear that someone in her twenties enjoys young adult fiction. I enjoy the feeling of nostalgia that I experience when I read about a young character experiencing something I have felt or done myself. I enjoy the magic and wonder that authors can infuse their writing with without shame when they write for young audiences who haven't yet given up on such things.
Children's literature is incredible brain food! So often, it is written with intensity, color, passion and zeal that I find lacking in much of the fiction out there for adults. This isn't to say that I never venture out of the kid fic section. I do. But I keep going back, again and again.
And more than the simple appeal the genre has for me personally, I feel that I take something else important away from indulging in this guilty pleasure. When a parent comes in with a child who doesn't like to read, I am ready with suggestions to peak their interest. I have personal experience with the good, the bad and the silly tools that may move a kid's eyes from the television screen to the pages of a book. Think back to the books you read as a child. Chances are that you remember them better than books you may have read recently. The things we experience as children leave such deep impressions. It is so exciting to know that you are helping to cultivate an imagination. So the question I want to ask is "Why wouldn't I read children's literature?"
Add to all this a desire to write that just won't be quashed, and certainly won't sit quietly in my mind, and a wild, deviant, six toed kitten named Circus who's imaginative shenanigans are the inspiration for the name of this blog; and I have myself a project. I'll fill this space with my impressions of the books that I read. Whether anyone stumbles across my little home on the net or not, I have no idea. Only time will tell.
Hazel.
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