4.16.2008

The One Where I Can't Think of a Clever Title for Children's Literature News

I've been home with a sick kid all day - this winter has been so brutal! - and I had all kinds of lovely intentions to put up several posts. Then I had to do some work because I had a deadline today. And then I started reading (and finished) Rumors, the sequel to The Luxe, by Anna Godbersen (*whispers aside* - it was deliciously wicked and indulgent, just as good as the first). Then I had to watch Hairspray with the coughing kid. Then I had to have lunch. Now it's 4:00 and I've posted nothing. Siiiiigh.

I have had the chance today to collect all kinds of information, though. First, Matt Holm, of the famed Babymouse series, has a fantastic blog post up about a French comics creator, Cyril Pedrosa, who is apparently declaring that there is no such thing as a graphic novel. Naturally, all of us librarians, know this is a ridiculous assertion. Matt does, too. Go check out his great response.

Apparently there's a new children's book coming out: My Beautiful Mommy by Dr. Michael Salzhauer. It's written by a Floridian plastic surgeon and it's a way to help explain to kids why mommy is getting plastic surgery. According to this article, the plastic surgeon (named Dr. Michael, of course) is portrayed as a superhero, making mommy "feel better" and be "beautiful." You know, it would be soooooo easy to rip this book apart. It's so tempting. But I'd like to play devil's advocate here and say that this could be a useful tool for parents. As a mother myself who has toyed with the idea of a tummy tuck, one of the biggest challenges in my mind has been how to explain to my daughter why I'm doing what I'm doing. Granted, I wouldn't buy this book to do it. But, still... Far be it from me to deny it to another parent who needs a little help. All those issues aside and on a more professional level, the cover illustrations look like classic amateur self-published quality (read: bad). I'm just sayin'.... (Thanks to Big A little a for the link)

And oh my god, I had no idea that Jim Dale, the narrator for the Harry Potter audiobooks, was the Dr. Terminus in Pete's Dragon!!! Did you?!?! Thanks to Sarah Miller for providing my shocker for the day: no, darling, you're not the last to know - I am!

I won't dedicate a whole post for it, but I finished reading the galley A La Carte by Tanita S. Davis; I received it in galley form at a Random House preview. If you'll remember from this post, I was very excited to see my love of food and children's/YA lit combined together. Unfortunately, there's bad news ahead: I didn't enjoy this book at all. Now, as a YA book, I suppose it was fine. It had all the requisite teen literature stuff: angst, romance, conflict, crushes, struggles with parents - you know the drill. But as food writing, it didn't work at all. When you read food writing, you need to be salivating. You need to have immediate desire for food because the writing has inspired it in you. You need to have all your senses engaged because the writing has brought it alive for you. A La Carte did not do any of that...at all...for me. But for teens that aren't budding foodies, then this book will suffice. I only fear that teens who are budding foodies will read this as an example of good food writing when they really need to be picking up Ruth Reichl.

Okay, one blog post down. Hopefully I can crank out one more - something food-related, of course, before the kid starts coughing again!

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