YA New York

Hello there.

I’ve been recovering from yet another bout of illness, this time necessitating a brief stay in the hospital. (The food there was awful, I must say!) Anyway, that is to explain my recent absence, and I must admit I’m not yet up to updating regularly.

But there are more important things afoot: My alma mater, New Rochelle High School, has removed pages from Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, which seniors are reading in class. The offending pages? Mentioned oral sex.

Oh noes! S-E-X? The horror!

Now look here: There are plenty of teen books that are much more graphic than Girl, Interrupted, which is really a fantastic memoir about struggling with borderline personality disorder — although I must admit I disagree with some of Kaysen’s conclusions, it’s a good book and a fascinating read.

I don’t disagree with her inclusion of the topic of S-E-X, though. Because, let’s face it: teens know about these things. Indeed, when I was a wee girl of seventeen — a very bratty one, too — my health teacher went into quite a lot of detail about various sexual acts. Of course she provided these details so that we students would be able to protect ourselves from STIs, but she provided the info nonetheless.

And you know, not everything we read in high school was so very chaste. I vividly remember a discussion about The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, in which some of us couldn’t help but wonder if the book featured a woman having … err … improper relations with a young boy. There was also the day, when I was a lass of fourteen, that my English teacher stood in the hallway ringing a bell and shouting, “It’s the sex scene! It’s the sex scene!” because we were watching Romeo and Juliet (the awesome seventies version) and our teacher wanted to make sure everyone was in attendance that day. When we did indeed watch the sex scene.

We watched Schindler’s List, too, unedited. And we read other inflammatory books.

The school administration’s decision to bowdlerize a book is not something I appreciate. Ripping pages out? Really? This is what you do to protect teenagers? And from what, exactly?

I should mention that New Rochelle, New York is a rather liberal city. It’s not a bit podunk or backwater or anything like that. And I don’t recall there being any censorship issues with the school newspaper or the school literary magazine when I was there oh-so-many years ago.

Which makes it even more disappointing that the district would rip pages out of a book.

But let’s face it: censorship is a rite of passage. All our favorite teen authors have been banned somewhere by someone. When Rachel Vail wrote recently of her children’s book being banned, I was of half a mind to congratulate her and half a mind to console her.

Although, at the end of the day, the “rite of passage” argument doesn’t make it any less frustrating that people can be closed-minded and, frankly, idiotic.

ml,
brina

The Canadian tourism board wants you to know that this year is the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables. They’ve been emphasizing this important data point all year long, hoping that it will pan out in tourism dollars. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and take a peek.

So you see, yes, Carrots herself is alive and well, and inspiring consumer spending in a time of economic woe, to boot. I find this funny, because Anne Shirley and her creator, Lucy Maud Montgomery, only ever inspired me to sheer audacity. I wanted to be wild and creative, and have adventures that involved bosom friends, raspberry cordial, and cute boys (possibly not in that order) just like Anne. (Well, OK, once I was also inspired to donate money to PBS because I got sucked into a fundraising drive while they were airing those Sullivan miniseries based on the Anne books, too. But that’s about it).

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No, my friends, I am not inviting you to go see an all-star special screening of Twilight with me. This is because I myself have not received any such invitation.

HOWEVER, I am inviting you to send me your pictures. If you go to the film on opening night, e-mail me pics of the crowd. I want to see any and all wackiness, from lines extending down three blocks to people in vampire and werewolf outfits to … well, you get the idea. I’ll post the best pics here on YA New York. Please be sure to include you names (or your internet handles) and locations, so I can give you attribution. A short description wouldn’t go awry, either.

Now, it’s the weekend. I may or may not be attending one or more events this weekend, and I may or may not tell you about them come Monday. For now, everyone go re-read E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks.

Much love,
brina

Hi guys, it’s Jami B. again.

I did some Nancy Drew style sleuthing and uncovered a link to the Ryan Seacrest/Obama interview that I mentioned in my last post right here.

If you’re curious, The Seacrest also does daily readings on his morning show from Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, in anticipation of the upcoming film release. There are links to some of his recent reading passages on the same webpage if you scroll a bit. Good for a chuckle, since he has some colorful commentary.

And finally, I’d like to get some thoughts about Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist off my chest. I had high hopes for this film. The novel, coauthored by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, is pretty kickass. Like seriously. Kick. Ass. Reading. So the suggestion that some Hollywood studio might smear this adorable, yet meaty book with bubblegum pop music and cheescake tween idol actors really gave me pause. What if they f’ed it up? Really, I was concerned.

I’ve seen the movie, though, and it’s actually pretty good. Its not 100 percent accurate to the book, but it does get the important stuff right. As a screenwriter who loves YA books, I was ready to roast this film if need be, but it’s really been done right. The lead actors (Michael Cera and Kat Dennings) deliver spot on, emotionally real performances as the titular Nick and Norah. The soundtrack, of course, is respectable. And the big diffs — including edits to the Tris and Caroline characters — mostly result in more laughs for the audience or help to trim bulky plotlines to make the 2 hour movie work. I also just liked it because the chemistry between the two leads totally crackled, and that’s how it comes off in the book! Finally, a movie that gets it! GETS that they have to make the audience feel what it feels like to be living-reading-breathing it as if you’re on your own night-in-the-life of adventure!

Bottom line: It’s a good adaptation, because it gets the feelings and tone of the book down pat. In Hollywood, that’s almost unheard of. So bravo Columbia Pictures, director Peter Sollett, and screenwriter Lorene Scafaria. Let’s hope others follow your lead and we get more great page to screen adaptations like Nick and Norah and a lot less like … City of Ember.

We’re still gone fishing, but you should seriously consider spending election night at the liveblog at YA for Obama.

Hey there,

I’m Jami B., one of Brina’s “lit lieutenants.” I’m here to check in and help fill the gap while Brina is on sabbatical. To wit … you’ll find all kinds of good bits once you jump on in and read my inaugural post:  (more…)

Starting Monday, a whole slew … slough … slew … BIG BUNCH of entries: interviews, event updates, and a gazillion billion reviews. Hopefully we’ll also have a great play-by-play of Nick and Norah from our awesome L.A. correspondent, Jami B.

Don’t worry, dearest friends. I’ve not forgotten you. Now go read some stuff while I continue to hide out for another twenty-four hours or so.

Much love,
brina

One. Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (the film) comes out in theaters on Friday. Our LA correspondent Jami B. will be attending and writing up a review. I’ll also be going, with luck, and I may chime in as well.

Two. Terry Gross interviewed Michael Cera (who stars as Nick in the film) on her NPR show, Fresh Air. The interview was almost entirely good, except that she failed to mention the film is based on the fantabulous book by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Umm … hello? Anyway, you can read about and listen to the interview here.

Three. It’s Banned Books Week, as you’ve probably already heard. There are about a million great books that have been banned, so try picking one up. My personal top three from the “frequently challenged” list include the works of Philip Pullman (killing God makes you not so popular), Lois Lowry (dystopian societies are a no-no), and Stephen Chbosky (all sorts of ban-attracting stuff in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, but I’ll say no more). Anyway, while I adore those three authors and their works, I’d encourage you to have your pick — there are gazillions of amazing books being banned all the time.

Four. There’s a new blog in town, started by Michael Grant, author of Gone and something like 700 other books, all under pseudonyms. Michael is really cool, because he created this massive group blog called Stupid Blog Name, and he invited all sorts of people to contribute. Including me! I was so surprised and amazed, and even more surprised and amazed when I looked at the site today and saw that MEG CABOT is blogging on the site too. Umm, hello? I cannot believe I am occupying the same web space as Meg freaking Cabot. And Michael freaking Grant. You should go check it out, and soon.

Okay, I usually wouldn’t do this to you. I really wouldn’t, but it’s important. As you may know, Paper Towns by John Green will be in stores soon (Oct. 16, to be specific). And you need to do a little pre-reading.

First of all, if you’ve never read John’s work before, I highly recommend An Abundance of Katherines, which is super freaking cheap on Amazon. $3.99. Seriously.

But more importantly, I’m going to ask you to read a rather long poem by a very famous man named Walt Whitman. This is the kind of stuff that, if you’ve not yet reached college, you will be reading in college. It’s hard work, and it’s honestly not my favorite thing in the world because I read the book under the tutelage of a college professor to whom I was allergic. Also because, while reading Leaves of Grass, I happened to be dating a guy I am now ninety percent sure was gay, and Walt Whitman was gay, and I felt like a magnet for gay guys.

ANYway, it actually is kind of a great idea to have a familiarity with this particular poem, Song of Myself, which luckily for you is old enough to be legally available free online. Bring up the page, print out the poem — it’s too long to read online — and be prepared for a bit of an intellectual struggle. You won’t regret it, especially because this particular work is sort of central to Paper Towns and also because it’s a Good Poem That You Should Read.

For fans of Michael Grant’s Gone: the man is nothing if not prolific and hard-working. Not only is the second book in the Gone series coming next year, but until then we have a blog to read. Introducing … The Fayz. If you’ve already read Gone, you know what the Fayz is. And if you haven’t read the book, maybe the blog will tempt you. Or maybe you should steer clear of it until you’ve gotten your hands on a copy of Gone, as there are some slight spoilers within. So you can either (a) click on the link above, or (b) go read the book, then come back here and click the link above. (Note: There are no other options.)