There is something strange about Coraline’s new home. Sure, her neighbors are strange. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible are retired actresses who tell fortunes and own one too many old Scottie dogs.  Mr. Bobo is a retired circus performer, and claims to spend his time training mice to perform in an all mouse circus. Even her parents are strange. The spend most of their time working on their computers, and don’t pay much attention to Coraline. But one rainy day, when Coraline discovers a tiny, bricked up door on her drawing room, things get even stranger.

The door is a passageway to an “other world”; an exact replica of her world, with a few key differences. Her “Other Parents” are fun and attentive, the “other” food is more delicious, and her “other” toys move and fly on their own. At first this world seems great, but when Coraline realizes that her parents have been trapped by her “Other Mother”, the Beldam, and tries to leave, she gets angry and punishes Coraline by locking her in a room. There she meets the trapped ghosts of three other children who had encountered the Beldam, and realizes that he fate will be the same as theirs if she doesn’t figure something out. Coraline challenges the Beldam to a game. If Coraline wins her parents and the souls of ghosts of the children are free. If she loses, she will be trapped forever.

Reminiscent of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland painted with a darker brush, Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is a spine tingling read about evil showing up too close to home. This fast-paced, suspenseful and sometimes humorous horror story will keep readers interested. Winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Bram Stoker awards, celebrated horror/fantasy writer Neil Gaiman has crafted a text that will appeal to readers of all ages.

highly recommended, 4P

Gaiman, Neil (2002). Coraline. Harper Collins. 208p. $16.95.  978-00605759

When going over this week’s reading, I was continually comparing the students experiences with stories on various mediums to my own experience of reading books electronically. I was interested in the ways that the students used visual cues to determine whether or not they might be interested in a story. In particular, I was curious about the student who saw the cover of Anne of Green Gables and deemed it too difficult to read, but upon reading the back cover, decided she may like it after all. The visual and textual cues were contradictory for her, but through reading she gained (what I assume) are more accurate picture of what the text would be like.

If visual cues make such a big difference in terms of book selection, then what does that say about what people choose to read electronically? I am one of those bad people who download e-books as torrents, and read them on the kindle that I obtained through questionable (although not illegal) avenues. When I read these books that I have downloaded, I am not influenced by cover art or any of the physical elements of the book, and rarely do I have short descriptions of the books, such as you might get on a book jacket. Instead I make by reading choices based on my ability to recognize the author or title, availability, and a quick reading of the first few paragraphs. I have noticed that I read very different books this way than I do when I physically have books in front of me to choose from.

I have started to read more books with male protagonists, likely because, generally speaking, books with female protagonists had a more feminine quality to the cover art that I was attracted to. I have started to read book from a broader range of time periods, and that are on a broader scale of difficulty, again because I lack the physical elements of a printed book that might indicate those things, and that might have deterred me. Overall I would say that my reading experiences that I personally have had since I began reading e-books have had an enriching influence on my “literary life”.

Like the student in the study, it is natural to want to judge a book by its cover, but what happens when the actual text is the only thing to judge by? I think that e-reading could potentially cause vast changes in the ways people read, and potentially the way people write (think using the text itself to create visual cues). It will be interesting to see how e-reading evolves in the years to come.

Here is my book trailer for Beauty Queens by Libba Bray.

While reading Mockingbird, I had two distinct reactions.  Firstly, being a fan of Catcher in the Rye, could not help but notice the similarities between Caitlin and Holden Caulfield. While it is not uncommon to find “Holden inspired” characters in YA lit, the parallels were too blaringly apparent to be ignored. Consider the following description of character; I feel that they could both be described in identical terms. For example:

“While dealing with the loss of a beloved brother, Holden/Caitlin struggle to find their place in a changing contemporary world. While possessing strong desire to connect with people Holden/Caitlin often finds that he/she is confused about how to develop meaningful relationships. This frustration often leads to outbreaks of anger and violence. Holden/Caitlin is not able to recognize when of his/her own behaviour becomes difficult for others to understand. Parents play a peripheral role in Holden/Caitlin’s life. The emotional need of their children are often misunderstood or ignored while the parent(s) deal with thier own troubles. Despite this difficulty, Holden/Caitlin is able to develop a strong emotional connection to the much younger Phoebe/Michael who, despite his/her youth, are able to provide guidance and reassurance.”

I am sure that there are many characters in YA literature that could be described in similar terms. Nonetheless Mockingbird shows quite clearly how it has been influenced by earlier YA lit.

Secondly, I could not help but wonder WHY this book was a National Book Award winner. I felt that the there were some major flaws with this book, making me wonder if part of the reason it received the award was due to its treatment of the “trendy” topics of Asperger’s Syndrome and school shootings. Feeling worried about lack of transparency about the criteria that these books are judged on.

Koren Zailckas, author of Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood, paints a compelling picture of her struggle to come to terms with her deep seeded anger. After giving up the binge drinking that defined Zailckas’ high school and college years, she is now left to develop emotional and social skills that were previously neglected. This is a memoir that details the author’s own journey to learn to understand and accept her own emotions. This book contains very personal revelations about the author’s relationship with her family and her partner, and deals with the emotional struggles of miscarriage and motherhood. It is very character driven, focusing largely on the personal experiences and emotional life of the author. The events that take place are secondary to the emotional reactions that they cause.

Despite the intensely personal content, Zailckas manages to make this memoir more that just a story about one woman’s emotions. She weaves the findings from her extensive research about the psychological and cultural significance of anger into her personal narrative. At times this book reads like a diary, and at other times it reads like a textbook. For some readers this may be off-putting, but this style helps to prevent it from becoming monotonous, and lets the reader move between emotional and intellectual moments.

For those who identify with the protagonist, or who enjoy very personal coming-of-age stories, this is likely to be a very rewarding read. However, the lack of a strong storyline may limit its potential audience. Emotional maturation is a major theme in this book, making this more appropriate for older YA readers. Overall this book has some wonderful strengths, but the appeal may be limited to a mostly female, older YA audience.

Overall rating : 2P, recommended with reservations

Hello to all!

I know that we are not SUPPOSED to respond to this weeks readings and it would be weird and awkward for everyone, and might even cause the whole wide world to implode and explode and the same time due to sheer volume of awkwardness. But I am going to take the risk! Adventure time!

I couldn’t help but giggle at some of the reasons that that teens gave for not using libraries.

“Libraries are not cool; they are frequented by nerds, dorks and dweebs”   (From “Young Adults and Reading”, p12)

What self-respecting teenager wants to be associated with dweeb-dom? None!

It seems quite clear from my collected reading that teenagers do read, and that they like it! So why, as some of my classmates noted in their YA blogs, are there so few teenager sightings in the YA sections of libraries and bookstores? What can librarians who are concerned about YA readership and library patronage do to change young peoples’ perception on the typical library user from this:

to this?

I am sure there are about 35 bigillion possible answers to the question. Here are some of my suggestions:

1) give away 36 free ipods every day

2) coffee, cookies and pizza

3) a disco ball

4) Add the service “text message your local librarian, even though you are in the library and can see her, and it would probably be faster to walk over there and ask her, but its cooler to text then to talk so text you reference questions to 555-555-5555!”

5)to show that the library is up-to-date with current YA trends, the librarians should be vampires or werewolves

But what if these things don’t help??!!!???? Are we doomed?

Maybe a more practical and budget conscious start could be to make the YA section in libraries and bookstores more appealing to young adults. Don’t shelve YA books in the children’s’ section! Budding adults, who are emerging from the cocoons of childhood don’t want to spend their leisure time in the same section of the library as their kid brothers and sisters. They dont want to have drooling two year olds who still play with telephones with wheels as their reading companions. Providing young adult readers with a space of their own might help this group of readers feel more comfortable.

Now I trail off without and definitive conclusion…..