Let It Snow

There’s something about the holiday season that makes me want to curl up with a cozy blanket, hot chocolate, and read stories of love.  Let It Snow was the perfect holiday read.

Let It Snow
by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle
352 p. Speak. 2008.
Gr 9 Up

Three authors of teen fiction join together to write a collection of linked novellas set in the same town in North Carolina around Christmas Eve.  When a snowstorm hits, a packed train get stuck in the resulting snow, and the teens from the train interact from the teens from the town in hilarious and romantic ways.  In Johnson’s “Jubilee Express,” Jubilee meets Stuarts, who convinces her she deserves better than the boyfriend she left at home.  Green portrays the teen male perspective with humor and wit that reminded me of Paper Townsin “Cheertastic Christmas Miracle,” in which Toby struggles on his quest through the snow with his two buddies to reach the Waffle House in order to meet 14 stranded cheerleaders.  In Myracle’s “Patron Saint of Pigs,” Addie agonizes about her recent breakup.  Everything concludes nicely with all the main characters enjoying coffee at Starbucks.

The Feels

Mild feels. The stories are tender and humorous with believable characters. Johnson’s was probably my favorite of the three, and I did not much care for Myracle’s story at all.  The stories illuminate the magic of the holidays, and the collection is a light, but satisfying read for cold winter nights.

“Finished” Product

Today, I am turning in my presentation to be shared with the rest of my class, which is hard for me to wrap my brain around, as I still feel like it is not complete. There is so much more reading for me to do, so much more for me to still discover about contemporary realistic YA.

I put together my presentation using emaze. I had a little trouble trying to add audio to each slide.  I borrowed my boyfriend’s microphone and could not for the life of me figure out how to actually make a recording.  I felt incredibly incompetent.  When I plugged it into my laptop a window popped up “You have plugged in a device!” and I thought, “Great! Now how do I use the device, computer?”  Once I finally figured out how to use Sound Recorder for Windows 8, my recordings were saved in an app.  I couldn’t figure out how to access them from the app, so I had to email each recording to myself to download to my computer, so that I could upload them to my each slide only to realize they weren’t in the correct format. Fortunately, Zamzar allowed me to convert them from M4A to MP3.

I’m a little disappointed with the audio component of the presentation. I think part of my presentation style is frantic and self-depricating. And that just didn’t come across at all.  Also, I sound like a robotic child.

Anyway, to make a long story short (too late), I finished my presentation. So as part of the sharing phase, if you’re interested in viewing it, you can find it here.

Bibliographies

Now that my personal inquiry assignment is coming to a close, I have compiled a list of all of the resources I used in my study.  I wish I had been able to read more and really delve deeper into contemporary realistic fiction.  As it stands now, I have read 16 YA novels (about 5000 pages); I also examined about 6 books from the research collection of Wells Library at IU Bloomington on the subject.

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Bibliographies:

• Professional Resources Bibliography
• Bibliography of Contemporary YA

Exploring Presentation Tools

For my creating phase of my personal inquiry, I am supposed to make some sort of visual product creation.  My instructor gave us a list of possible ideas like Prezi, Glogster, easel.ly, and Pixton.

The key to this portion of the Personal Inquiry Assignment is to choose something “novel” to us.  Therefore, since I normally use Prezi for all of my presentations, I wanted to choose something different.

You can use easel.ly to create infographics, but I didn’t think my inquiry really lent itself to this format.  However, it is a really neat and free tool; it is something I will keep note of for future projects.  I can really envision myself using this tool to present information in the professional field.

Pixton is really cool; it is used to create comic strips! And while I love comics, I couldn’t see myself using this tool for sharing my project.

I initially planned on using Glogster, which allows you to create multimedia format posters, until I stumbled upon emaze. I liked the emaze was different from PowerPoint and Prezi but was in a similar format so it would be easily recognizable and understandable for my intended audience.  It has the tagline “Create Amazing Presentations!” which seemed a little lame to me.  However, the online software has free templates that you choose from to make slideshows, video presentations, and even 3D presentations! Their home page features this nice infographic (I really love infographics) about why you should use emaze over PowerPoint.  

Honestly, I don’t really need much convincing; PowerPoint has become a little tired for me.

So it’s settled: I’ll be using emaze for my visual product creation tool.

Rubric Review

It just got real, folks.  My instructor uploaded the rubrics for our personal inquiry journal, presentation, and paper today.  My initial reaction when reviewing the rubric? Panic. The due date kind of sneaked up on me, and I still feel like I have not done enough for this project. I’ve been working diligently on my journal (i.e. this blog), and after reviewing the rubrics, I think I might have to go back and redo a lot of it.

I feel a little overwhelmed.

Overwhelmed seems to be the recurring theme of my personal inquiry project so far…

Fortunately, the rubrics fall in line with the Alberta Inquiry Model, which is the model I am trying to follow.  The whole personal inquiry project is new to me, and I feel like I am stumbling through all of this meta-cognition. I am so accustom to just going right to work on the product, rather than talking and writing about my thought process for each phase.

My strategy for this is to do some serious work in order to satisfy the highest levels for each of the rubrics, which will probably include going back and doing some editing of my previous blog posts.

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Rubrics:

• Personal Inquiry Presentation
• Personal Inquiry Journal
• Personal Inquiry Reflection Paper

“The John Green Effect” and “GreenLit”

I just finished Andrew Smith’s Winger, which last year had been given the title of GreenLit by New York Times.  “GreenLit” according to New York Times is a thing used to define writers that either write in the style of John Green or writers John Green celebrates (e.g. Rainbow Rowell, A.S. King, e. lockhart).  I’m not going to go into what I think of the whole “GreenLit” definition (some people even call it a “genre”!) too much, but BookRiot pretty much sums up my thoughts on the term.

I know Green really helped bring the realistic genre featuring smart, self-aware teenage narrators with witty dialogue back to life, but he did not invent the genre.  Anyone else remember Blume, Hinton, or even Salinger? (Okay, technically, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) was originally published for adults, but it has since become really popular with youth because of its themes.) …And can we just talk about the reigning queen of contemporary YA? Sarah Dessen, folks. Sarah Dessen.

To me, it is honestly kind of demeaning to the authors’ talents and accomplishments; I’m sure these other authors would appreciate their books being evaluated on their own merits.

I recognize the importance of John Green. In fact, my blog might not have existed without Green, because he really did help usher in the trend in the revival of contemporary, realistic fiction.

https://twitter.com/johngreen/status/467020907169738752

But even Green think it’s ridiculous to claim he is the sole reason for the contemporary YA revival.

I want to make it clear that this blog is not about GreenLit; it’s about emotionally intense contemporary YA of which John Green’s books belong.  As a librarian, I love read-alikes, which are so important in reader’s advisory, and therefore can appreciate the whole, “Oh, you liked John Green? You may like one of these…” But what I can’t get behind is the idea that authors’ books be generalized based on the narrative style of Green or that Green should somehow be placed on a pedestal for all other YA contemporary realism to be compared against. There is so much range and nuance in contemporary realism, and grouping them all into GreenLit (or not GreenLit) really ignores the innovation and brilliance of the other authors.

Is it for boys?

As I’m collecting materials for my inquiry project, I’ve noticed so many of these books look like “girl books.” I know, I know, boys and girls can fall in love with the same books. But seriously, are you telling me a teenage boy is going to pick up The Beginning of Everything to read? I have a hard time imagining a teenage boy walking around carrying this brightly colored book with him.  On my nightstand, there is a small stack of books I have gathered for this project, and every time I just look at the spines of the book, I am struck by how “girly” they all look.  The truth, I think, is that girls will read “boys’ books,” but boys aren’t as likely to read “girls’ books.”  The market is so saturated with “lip-glossy” covers. And, I’m sorry, but if the cover screams girl, I don’t think he’s going to pick it up.  Beyond just the covers though, I feel that a lot of the books’ topics and themes may just not appeal to boys.

There are stacks of these all over my room right now; my space is completely taken over by contemporary YA.

I anticipated this when I started my inquiry project though, as a lot of contemporary, realistic fiction is more focused on relationships and romance–topics which appeal more to teenage girls.  However, John Green’s books appeal to both boy and girl readers, so surely there are other books out there that appeal to boys as well; I’m just having trouble finding them.

I think part of the real problem is the lack of male protagonists in the genre.  And some of the leading boys in the books just don’t feel real, you know?  In so many books they are just a prop for their female counterpart.  There is this huge push for strong female characters (which I’m all for, don’t get me wrong), but it seems to me there should be an equally strong push for book for realistic portrayal of teen boys.  S.E. Hinton expressed a similar concern about the lack of YA books written for boys; it’s already hard to engage teenage boys in reading, it’s even harder if there aren’t book with characters they can relate to.  

Currently, I’m reading Winger by Andrew Smith, which is another boarding school story like Looking for Alaska about academically gifted Ryan Dean West who plays rugby at Pine Mountain.  Smith obviously knows what goes on inside the mind of a 14-year old boy and the narration feels authentic.  And so far, it deserves all the praise it has been getting. When I finish I’ll post my review.

Here are some of the other “guy books” I’ve got on my to-read list:

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

Reality Boy by A.S. King

Themes of Contemporary Realistic Fiction

Today in Young Adult Literature : Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation, I came across a list of common themes present in contemporary realistic fiction. It should be noted that the categories are not mutually exclusive.

• Overcoming fears and accepting responsibilities
• Understanding families, divorce, and adoption
• Finding friends: relationships, alienation, and a sense of belonging
• Accomplishing goals in sports
• Developing and maturing
• Finding romance
• Coping with violence, crime, alcohol, and drug abuse
• Living with physical and mental disabilities
• Coping with death, disease, accidents, and suicide
• Developing sexual relationships
• Understanding sexual orientation
• Understanding the difficulties associated with growing old
• Living in a global society: prejudice, politics, conflicts, and war
• Understanding religion and its role in society

I like this list, as it captures the most common themes present succinctly.  I will be utilizing this list in the way that I tag the YA novels on this blog as I move forward in the inquiry process.

Volume Reading

In addition to the professional literature I will be sorting through, I also have a stacks and stacks of young adult books that I have gathered.  Most of the books I’m planning on looking at were published in the last 10 years, because I really want to focus on the developing trends in contemporary realistic fiction.

Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews

Good Kings Bad Kings: A Novel by Susan Nussbaum

We Were Liars by e. lockhart

Side Effects May Vary by Julie Murphy

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy by Kate Hattemer

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Probability of Miracles: A Novel by Wendy Wunder

This One Summer by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki

Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg

Reality Boy by A.S. King

Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson

The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider

Winger by Andrew Smith

Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts

Sway by Kat Spears

Breathe, Annie, Breath by Miranda Kenneally

Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King

Aristotle and Date Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Anatomy of a Misfit by Andrea Portes

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Falling into Place by Amy Zhang

This list is, of course, in no way exhaustive, but these are the materials that I grabbed while I was at the Monroe County Public Library.  I probably won’t be able to read all of these, but I’m going to work hard to make my way through as many as possible.  I am also pretty flexible and will be adding and removing materials to my list as I see fit.

So much reading

After some searching, I’ve gathered a list of resources:

• Bucher, Katherine Toth, and KaaVonia Hinton. Young Adult Literature : Exploration, Evaluation, and Appreciation. Third edition.
• Cart, Michael. Young Adult Literature : From Romance to Realism. Chicago: American Library Association, 2010.
• Day, Sara K. Reading Like a Girl: Narrative Intimacy In Contemporary American Young Adult Literature. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013.
• Flanagan, Caitlin. “What girls want: a series of vampire novels illuminates the complexities of female adolescent desire.” The Atlantic 2008: Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
• Hayn, Judith, and Jeffrey S Kaplan.Teaching Young Adult Literature Today : Insights, Considerations, and Perspectives for the Classroom Teacher. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012.
• Hilton, Mary, and Maria Nikolajeva. Contemporary Adolescent Literature and Culture : the Emergent Adult. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2012.
• James, Kathryn. Death, Gender and Sexuality In Contemporary Adolescent Literature. New York: Routledge, 2009.
• Kiefer, Barbara Zulandt, and Charlotte S Huck. Charlotte Huck’s Children’s Literature. 10th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010.
• Richards, Chris. Forever Young : Essays On Young Adult Fictions. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.
• Stacked

Okay, so I am slightly overwhelmed (that seems to the common theme so far for my inquiry project) by the amount of material to read.  However, I was really excited to get my hands on Cart’s Young Adult Literature: From Romance to Realism.I mean, look at that cover! In this expanded revision of his 1996 book, Cart shows how the best of contemporary YA literature has evolved throughout history and previews current and developing trends.  The cover promises the work is “insightful” and “humorous,” so I have high hopes.