I can’t remember where I found the question yesterday, but someone was asking whether there was value in YA reading classics. Through the years I have gone back and forth on this issue. Many of the books deemed classics seem random and not all that great, to me. Sometimes they are only examples of their time period. Sometimes they were controversial when they were published. Either way they may be meaningless without understanding the time period. Sometimes the style in which the books are written is why they are acclaimed. So, for my kids I haven’t pushed the classics all that much so far.

But I have reached a turning point. My oldest is 16. He and I both love reading YA, but he (and I sometimes) are needing more challenge. From what I have read of YA, the major advantage of adult books (especially classics, but not limited to classics) is that they pose more of a challenge than YA. The content can be very similar, but I have only run across a few YA books that can stand up to the complexity of classics or more literary adult books. It seems to me that there is less playing with the language (though I have seen some) in YA literature. With many of the classics there is a stronger feel of creating art. The gap, of course, could narrow in the future.

The importance, to me, of this difference is that there is great beauty in looking at stories as a form of art and playing with the form of it. I love to read books of which I can savor the language or smoothly written metaphors. Is this not why Shakespeare is so loved and taught? Another factor is that most parents want their children to go to college. To read the material in college requires having been challenged in reading in earlier years. Otherwise, college ends up harder than it should be. Writing is easier also if the student has been in the habit of reading an extensive vocabulary.  I like that YA is being used in high schools now, but I do think the students should also be encouraged to read adult (and I don’t mean the light weight stuff), especially in the last 2 years.

So, I am trying to throw in some classics. Ones I’ve read and not read. And I am open to suggestions for adult/classic books for teens. This is why I have been participating in The Year of Reading Dangerously challenge (though I haven’t read the discussion books-yet). I would like to continue to read more challenging books once a month, and have my son do so also.

Copyblogger’s haiku contest was so much fun, we have decided to hold our own. The prize will be a $15 gift card from iTunes. The subject is anything to do with a book (ex. about the story or illustrations, about your enjoyment of the book, or books in general). Only original work, please.

Haiku is a form of poetry that consists of 17 syllables broken up into three phrases of 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively.

The contest expires December 31, 2008. Post your haiku in the comments for this post. If you wish, you can certainly Twitter it, too. The winner will be announced both here and on Twitter. The account to follow is minerva66.

This month’s selection, The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington and illustrated by Shelley Jackson, reminds me of Eric Carle’s books. The use of mixed media and the focus on animals. The book is more complex than Carle’s books. It is a must read.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

MacBook Giveaway
Haiku contest, expires soon
@copyblogger

www.copyblogger.com

Contest ends Sunday, Nov 16th.

Requires Twitter account.

Kevin Hawkes caught my attention when I was reading Paul Fleischman books, specifically Weslandia and Sidewalk Circus. They remain 2 of my favorites, but little did I know the treat I had in store when I decided to focus on Kevin Hawkes’s art.

Much of his work is dynamic, with vibrant and contrasting colors. He also uses shadow frequently for emphasis or drama. The illustrations tend to be impressionistic, though detailed, and the content humorous, with a few exceptions.

Share these books, and your picture book library will grow as mine has.

*These selections are ones I particularly enjoy.

*And to Think That We Thought That We’d Never Be Friends by Mary Ann Hoberman

*By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Caroline Stutson

Boogie Bones by Elizabeth Loredo

*Dreamland by Roni Schotter

The Enormous Snore by M. L. Miller

Granite Baby by Lynne Bertrand

*Handel: Who Knew What He Liked by M. T. Anderson

His Royal Buckliness by Kevin Hawkes

Imagine That!: Poems of Never-Was selected by Jack Prelutsky

*Jason’s Bears by Marion Dane Bauer

*Lady Bugatti by Joyce Maxner

*Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen

*The Librarian Who Measured the Earth by Kathryn Lasky

The Magic Wand by Karen Hoenecke

*The Man Who Made Time Travel by Kathryn Lasky

*Marven of the Great North Woods by Kathryn Lasky

*Me, All Alone, at the End of the World by M. T. Anderson

My Friend the Piano by Catherine Cowan

*My Little Sister Ate One Hare by Bill Grossman

*My Little Sister Hugged an Ape by Bill Grossman

The Nose by Nikolai Gogol. retold by Catherine Cowan

*Painting the Wind by Michelle Dionetti

*Sidewalk Circus presented by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkes

This Place I Know poems selected by Georgia Heard

Timothy Tunny Swallowed a Bunny by Bill Grossman

*The Turnip by Walter de la Mare

*Velma Gratch & the Way Cool Butterfly by Alan Madison

*Weslandia by Paul Fleischman

When Giants Come To Play by Andrea Beaty

The Wicked Big Toddler by Kevin Hawkes

Kevin Hawkes has also created artwork for novels, most notably Eva Ibottson and Philip Pullman, plus some short story collections for younger readers.

Also worth noting, Kevin Hawkes’s website has artwork for sale, books, FAQs, and a tutorial on how to draw shadows.

In the READ YA LIT group on Library Thing, I saw an inspiring idea today.

d.peabody leads a teen book club at the library and says they discussed book covers and made their own using whatever was at hand and photography. I have recently been trying to notice coverart as I read, since I started my Spotlight on the Illustrators. What a cool idea, d.peabody! I may have to try this with my kids. It will work well for homeschooling, too-for all age levels.

The Calder Game is the 3rd in a collection of art mysteries that employ math, logic, philosophy, history, and literature as well. Connections and interwoven clues are a huge part of the stories. They are unique stories that encourage looking at life, art, and the world in different ways. They also approach the whole subject of education in a different way. I found the 2 that I read so far to be intriguing and awesome in their vision and focus. I haven’t been able to get my hands on the 2nd, The Wright 3, but loved the other 2.

Read More

Zlata Filipovic started writing her diary at the age of 10 a few months before war broke out in Sarajevo. She had no idea that war was imminent. In fact, even when she saw news footage of Dubrovnik, Croatia, she couldn’t conceive of war coming to Sarajevo. She couldn’t imagine that the surrounding area would be devastated by shelling and that she would be confined to one room in her family’s apartment without the basic necessities of life.

Read More

Paint the Wind may be Pam Muñoz Ryan’s best work yet. She writes for picture book level up through 8th grade, but her stories are so inspiring that they are enjoyed by adults as well. This particular book has a complexity not often seen for younger ages. It is 2 stories in one. A girl goes from living with her strict, overly protective paternal grandmother, needing desperately to have a connection with her dead mother, to living with her mother’s father, aunt and uncle on a ranch and in the wild with tents.  Paralleling the girl is a wild horse, the lead female of her band.

REVIEW

Current Pick and List of Previous

Different than expected. Many spiritual beliefs included. Each of the adolescent protagonists had reason themselves to ponder their beliefs and others. The stories range from Amish shunning to the Islamic jihad to creative inspiration as a gift from God to visions in Native American rituals.

Read More