A Book on Every Bed: Amy Dickinson

Posted on December 18, 2013 at 3:51 pm

I love Amy Dickinson’s idea of “A Book on Every Bed,” a wonderful way to start Christmas (or any other special occasion).

Here’s how it works: You take a book (it can be new or a favorite from your own childhood).

You wrap it. On Christmas Eve (or whatever holiday you celebrate), you leave the book in a place where Santa is likely to find it. When I communicated with David McCullough about borrowing his idea, he was very clear: Santa handles the delivery and places the book on a child’s bed.

In the morning, the children in your household will awaken to a gift that will far outlast any toy: a guided path into the world of stories.

I know this for sure: No matter who you are or what you do, reading will unlock untold opportunities, mysteries and passions.

When you have a book and the ability to tell, read and share stories, you gain access to the universe of others’ imaginations. And avid readers know that if you have a book, you are never alone.

Please start this tradition with your family. It will give your children the enduring pleasure of the magic of books.

YA Literature and Its All-Ages Fans

Posted on October 12, 2013 at 3:59 pm

New York Magazine has a great selection of articles about one of the fastest-growing and most popular categories in publishing, the increasingly inaccurately-named Young Adult genre. Jen Doll writes about loving YA novels in her thirties, quoting my friend Sandie Angulo Chen.

Why do I, and other adults, read books for teens? In late August, YA author Malinda Lo asked adults to offer up their thoughts on the subject via Twitter, along with the hashtag #whyadultsreadYA. “I enjoy the immediacy of the stories and the sense of being at the beginning of the path of who you’ll become,” tweeted @sesinkhorn. “I love the intensity of 1st time experiences, experimentation, & growth that we’re told to stop doing as adults,” added @sarahockler. When I asked Sandie Angulo Chen, co-founder of the blog Teen Lit Rocks, for her theory, she said, “I think it’s about having that desire to connect with the you that’s still young, having that appreciation for that time in your life and wanting to reconnect with it.” And I have to agree; there’s an undeniable nostalgic lure. Reading YA, unlike consuming other forms of entertainment that are rooted in the past—movies that are remakes or origin stories of long-established comic-book heroes, for example—reminds me of the person I used to be rather than the things I used to be into.

There’s a kind of forward momentum, too, enabled by reading about characters for whom lives are still blank slates ready to be filled, compared to our own. We can measure ourselves against their choices and see how we succeeded; we can feel wiser than they are, knowing that what we did then turned out okay; we can also see for ourselves where there might still be room to improve. As dire as the situations may be—the worlds of these characters contain creatures bent on destroying them, untrustworthy adults, grave injustices, unrequited or deeply problematic love, abuse, bullying, suicide, murder, paralyzing self-doubt—there is the sense that things have the potential to get better.

It should be noted that I read plenty of things written by and meant for adults. I can stand tall as I show them off on the subway. But adult as they are, they don’t always captivate me the way YA does. Those are the books I read in a one-night rush, staying up until three in the morning to find out what happened, and when I do, sighing in pleasure because the heroine really does get the guy, the world has been saved, the parents finally understand, or there is at least the promise of things working out in the end. Adult books may be great literature, but they don’t make me feel the same way.

Emma Whitford writes about the growing influence of YA. Novels like The Hunger Games and The Twilight Saga have produced blockbuster film series, with Divergent poised to become the next big series. “Divergent” star Shailene Woodley will also play the lead in another movie based on a popular YA book, The Fault in Our Stars.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6HHCxLZftQ

If you’re a YA fan, take a look at this great new fabric from Spoonflower, the pattern a collection of retro library check-out cards for classic YA books.

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Tribute: Tom Clancy

Posted on October 2, 2013 at 2:35 pm

I once boarded an airplane and counted a dozen different Tom Clancy books being read in those pre-Kindle days as I walked down the row. On another trip, I flew on four planes and on all four was seated next to someone reading a Tom Clancy book. Clancy, who died today at age 66, was the master of the “airplane novel,” the gripping thriller that is just right for passing the time while traveling. Clancy’s trademark was the detailed descriptions of weapons and other military technology. He made it all seem both fantastic and realistic. That’s because it was both. Clancy was as famous for his meticulous research into dense and arcane government reports. That research produced his nonfiction “Guided Tour” series about military machinery. That’s just the background, though. What made his books come alive was the intensity of the peril in his plots and the integrity and dedication of the characters, especially Jack Ryan and Admiral Greer.

Clancy’s Jack Ryan books have been made into four movies (so far): The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger) (Alec Baldwin as Ryan in the first one and Harrison Ford in the second and third), plus The Sum of All Fears, a prequel with Ben Affleck. “Jack Ryan: Shadow One” is now in production, directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring “Star Trek’s” Chris Pine.

“The Hunt for Red October” is one of my favorite thrillers, with an all-star cast and a sensational storyline.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ak917meUoo

But I hope Clancy will also be remembered for his extraordinary kindness, as shown in this story he wrote about his friendship with a very, very sick little boy. He will be missed.

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Vintage YA Books to Be Re-Issued

Posted on September 15, 2013 at 8:00 am

Lizzie Skurnick is the author of the marvelous book Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading, the story of the YA books of the 1960’s to 80’s. She has now been offered her dream assignment — to bring some of these treasures back in new editions from Ig Publishing. Titles like Debutante Hill by Lois Duncan, A Long Day in November by Ernest J. Gaines, and To All My Friends With Love from Sylvie by Ellen Conford will reach a new generation of readers as well as the fans who remember them well. If I could add my wishlist, it would include the books of Rosamund DuJardin like Practically Seventeen and Me, Cassie by Anita MacRae Feagles, two of my favorites when I was in what we then called Junior High.

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An Animated Gibran’s “Prophet”

Posted on June 23, 2013 at 8:00 am

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, first published in 1923, has illuminated the concepts of love, intimacy, and spirituality for devoted readers for generations. Its wisdom and quiet lyricism are deeply moving. This passage is quoted in the classic movie, “The Women.”

But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure, Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love’s threshing-floor, Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

He wrote about friendship:

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

He wrote about pain:

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

I was delighted to read on Deadline that Salma Hayek is producing a new animated movie based on “The Prophet.” The talent involved is very impressive.

Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek, John Krasinski, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina andQuvenzhané Wallis have all joined the voice cast of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet, the animated feature film written and directed by Roger Allers, whose animation credits include directing Disney’s The Lion King and Open Season and whose writing and storyboard work encompasses such films as Aladdin, Beauty And The Beast, and The Little Mermaid. .. Animators include Tomm Moore (The Secret Of Kells), Joan Gratz (Mona Lisa Descending A Staircase), Bill Plympton (Guard Dog And Your Face), Nina Paley (Sita Sings The Blues), Joann Sfar (The Rabbi’s Cat), Paul and Gaetan Brizzi (Fantasia 2000), Michal Socha (Chick) and Mohammed Harib (Freej).

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