Pusillanimous, anyone?

You may think I'm just a Slubberdegullion, or Rodomontade, or worse, Omphaloskepsis. But after reading this post, you may go through Metanoia, and realize I have that certain Chatoyant, and that I'm merely trying to prevent the Chthonic of some very useful words. I know I'm being Panglossian to think that one obscure post is going to do anything, but I have to try. After all, I can't just sit around and be a Scrimshanker.

For more multi-syllabic obscure words, you can read this article from the BBC News Magazine.

Another award

The National Book Awards finalists are announced. Here are the finalists in the Young People's Literature category:

Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains (Simon & Schuster)
Kathi Appelt, The Underneath (Atheneum)
Judy Blundell, What I Saw and How I Lied (Scholastic)
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (Hyperion)
Tim Tharp, The Spectacular Now (Alfred A. Knopf)

Newbery and Cybils

In the School Library Journal, Anita Silvey asked, "Has the Newbery lost its way?

When people who work most closely with children--teachers and librarians--become disenchanted with the award, does that indicate that it has become outdated and out-of-touch with the very readers it hopes to delight and instruct as John Newberry intended when this award started?

Over at Writer Unboxed, Kathleen Bolton collects some responses to Silvey's article.

For me, the questions raised are the following:
What constitutes literary merit?
Who decides?
Do the children have any say?
Should they?
Is the division really between quality writing and popularity?
Can't quality writing and popularity coincide?
And why do people resort to condescending and dismissive tactics when they argue?

[All right, this last one is really off on a tangent, but really,
“There is so little right about these completely forgettable books.”
“Why do we care about whether kids like the Newbery books?"

Can we please be civilized and focus on the topic and not rhetoric? I guess I'm pleading from a mind filled with too much rhetoric lately.]

**rant over**

I definitely reacted to three of the last four Newberry winners: Kira-Kira, Criss-Cross, and the Higher Power of Lucky. I think I'll re-read them.

And if any of you think that you should have a say on which books are given awards, go nominate your favorite books for the Cybils Award. Anyone, I repeat, anyone can nominate books. So, if you have a book that you feel is overlooked but deserved much more recognition, go nominate!

Miracles

Fall is approaching rapidly. I've been spending as much time outside as I could these past few weeks to enjoy the last warm days. I've been reminded once again that miracles surround us. In this picture, the plant is sprouting from a boulder! Perhaps bits of dirt have been trapped in crevices but this little plant speaks to me about tenacity, about making something work, and about thriving despite all odds.


And how miraculous it is, when this turns into this:



And finally to this:




Inspiring!

Here's wishing you many inspired moments.

Savvy: a review

Savvy
by Ingrid Law

Savvy is a quirky story that goes straight to the heart.

Children in the Beaumont family get their savvy on their 13th birthday. Mibs’s grandmother captured radio waves, her grandfather forms new lands, and one of her brothers creates electricity. On her 13th birthday, Mibs ends up on a road trip in a pink school bus with several involuntary fellow travelers.

Even though these special abilities may give the impression that this story is not reality-based, the author uses the fantastical elements to relate to our un-savvied, ordinary world. In the words of Mibs’s mother:

“We get born, and sometime later we die. And in between, we’re happy and sad, we feel love and we feel fear, we eat and we sleep and we hurt like everyone else.”

And Mibs comes to the realization herself later, that:

“We Beaumonts are just like other people...” and that:

“...savvy is just a know-how of a different sort.”

This realization plays a role in the resolution of a big problem that occupies Mibs’s mind most of the book.

The main characters are fully-fleshed and likeable, from the narrator, Mibs; to her brothers, Fish and Samson; the haughty teenager Bobbi; the fearful bus driver, Les; and the big-hearted waitress, Lil. [Spoiler alert]I was, however, suspicious of Will Junior all the way through. All his winks and smiles at Mibs make me super protective of young Mibs. When he turned out to be a good guy, I was relieved.

I love the tenderness and care demonstrated among the Beaumont family members. So many books show siblings who can’t stand one another or young people who are impatient and scornful of their parents. Many of these books are well written but they inevitably leave a bad taste in my mouth. Score one for Ingrid Law for writing about loving and strong family relationships.

The author’s language is lively and all her own, and for me, this is the most and least attractive element of the book. She has some amazing metaphors and similes and out-of-the-box descriptions. Here are a few that I like:

“...in a blinding explosion of brilliant blue sparks, like the Fourth of July without the red or the white.”

“Fish gave me a...look that said Now What? with a This-Was-a-Stupid-Idea tag to it.”

“...adding two and two and getting twenty seven...”

But sometimes the degree of quirkiness and uniqueness is dialed too high to where it draws too much attention to itself and away from the story:

“...had her own set of rights and wrongs—like matching suitcases she made other people carry—and she took it upon herself to make everything and everyone as shipshape and apple-pie as she felt the Lord had intended them to be.”

“His breath a loud mix of bluster and buffalo wings.”

Or they go over the top:

“...his voice galled and glum yet surprisingly tuneful like a country western singer yodeling atop a cactus tree.”
Country western singer and yodeling and cactus?

“He struck me as a fellow whose gears might turn a bit slower..., a man whose thinking cap had gotten shrunk in the wash and now fit his brain a notch too tight.”

Then there is the author’s tendency/choice to use repetition:

“I drum, drum, drummed my fingers...”
“I was sure I was sure.”
“...moody-broody self.”
“...closed tight tight tight.”
“...began to hum hum hum hum hum.”
“...the car gurgled and gargled.”
“...tatty ratty seats...”
“...whack of a quack...”
In the same paragraph, something is described as “itty-bitty” at the beginning and then “teeny-tiny” at the end.
“I could do nothing nothing nothing for Poppa.”

Repetition is an effective highlight. In this case, I can see how the nothing x 3 can convey the girl’s hopelessness and heartbreak. But because repetition has been used so much by then it no longer packed the same punch.

Some of you disagree with me and consider all these phrases fabulous. I can only reply that it’s a matter of taste. Others of you wonder why I like the first lot but not the second. Taste, again, and it’s all in the first reaction. A phrase can delight, sadden, or make me think, or it can take me out of the story. The ones I like did the former and the ones I don’t like did the latter. My reactions are completely subjective and dependent on whatever mechanisms that work together to create first impressions.

I wonder how much of the author’s use of language is the result of the publishing industry’s search for the Unique Voice. We read so often of agents and publishers being captured by a certain something—difficult to describe, yet unmistakable when present—that makes them fall in love with a book. Did the author dial up her uniqueness, consciously or subconsciously, because of that?

I hope not. I hope that this is her voice. Even though I am distracted at times, I hope she’s taking her own advice, given by Mom in this book, about scumbling, or controlling, a savvy:

“...is like spreading a thin layer of paint over yourself...If you use too much paint, you’ll not only obscure your savvy completely, but most everything else in life will become dull and uninteresting for you too. You can’t get rid of part of what makes you you and be happy.”

If this way of writing is Ingrid Law’s savvy, then I hope she stays with it. Because with it, she conveys warmth and generosity, and creates a story that is grounded in the things that matter: love, faith, and hope.

Poetry Friday

I'm thinking about failure and success, in our pursuits as well as in our relationships, and about what really lasts. Here's a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke.

What Survives
by Rainer Maria Rilke

Who says that all must vanish?
Who knows? Perhaps the flight
of the bird you wound remains,
And perhaps flowers survive
Caresses in us, in their ground.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Please visit Picture Book of The Day for this week's Poetry Friday Roundup.

Colorado Book Awards Results

At the Colorado Book Awards last night, Red Glass is selected as the winner in the Young Adult Literature category. Congratulations, Laura! And congratulations to Todd and Teresa as well for being finalists.

Here's looking forward to more books by these fabulous writers.

Red Glass Giveaway Results

It's October 8th, and my six-year old drew the winner's name from my hat. And the signed copy of Red Glass goes to...

Alyce!

Alyce, I've just sent you email. Please let me know asap that you still want the book. I hope to hear from you by next Wednesday or I'll have to award the book to the next name, drawn by my seven-year old. (Can't tell you who it is. Suspense is good...)