I've been involved in fandom for a long time, and being involved in fandom, you get used to not telling anyone you're involved in fandom. (Yes, I know what it sounds like.) I did a mock up of a fanfiction related program and did some research about fanfiction in the library.
It's actually being used! By a lot of places! I've been saying for years that it's a great way to develop writing skills and meet people with similar interests, so I was happy to see that librarians are on board.
Teens are already doing it; it's the smart thing to learn about it and understand it, and even smarter to learn about the issues surrounding it, especially copyright issues, which librarians should know anyway.
Anyway, I found it really encouraging to see how many fanfiction programs there were.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Twilight
I haven't read Twilight, but I have heard all about it and I kind of love the bitchy reviews people write about it. In class, we talked about what to do when someone is talking to you about a book they liked, but that you don't. Don't put the book down, give your reasons without sounding judgmental about the book. Fine, no problem.
But I just read this: http://www.cracked.com/funny-36-twilight/
Really? That's what happens? That can't all be true. Please tell me it's not all true.
Oh. My. God.
But I just read this: http://www.cracked.com/funny-36-twilight/
Really? That's what happens? That can't all be true. Please tell me it's not all true.
Oh. My. God.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Book Recs
These are a few books I've read that I think teens would enjoy if they are interested in historical fiction.
Christopher's Ghosts by Charles McCarry. This book is amazing. The first half is about a German-American boy in love with a non-classified Jewish girl in 1939. The second half is about the man the boy has become, an intelligence agent hunting down the man who destroyed his life. It's well-written, humorous, romantic and dramatic. McCarry was a spy during the Cold War and tosses in just enough detail about the way operatives and operations work to pad the story without making it too technical. The last line is a killer.
Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor is a murder mystery set during the Irish famine and it occurs partly on the eponymous vessel but mainly in Ireland and England. From almost the beginning the victim and murderer are identified and you get to know them and the people who know them. But it turns out not to be as straightforward as the author lays out. The famine is a character itself and its existence drives much of the characters to action (or inaction). The book is organized as a book-within-a-book by a journalist who is himself intimately connected to the story and may not be as disinterested as he tries to be.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is a modern-day fable/allegory about a naïve German boy, son of a death-camp guard father. He befriends a captive Jewish boy. The story is told entirely from the first boy's p.o.v. Beginning to end, he never comes close to understanding what is happening around him, instead fitting the tragedy into a schema appropriate to his own life. Boyne uses the boy's misunderstanding of certain words to underscore the intent of the true words. (This only works in English, I imagine this loses something in translation.) For example, he misunderstands his father's boss's name as "The Fury", and no amount of correction will dissuade him of this, especially after he witnesses the man's dinner manners. Often, the naivety of both children was incredibly frustrating, which the author does address in an interview included in this edition of the book. It does not have a happy ending, but it does close with a feeling that a lesson has been learned by the one character who needed to learn it most.
Christopher's Ghosts by Charles McCarry. This book is amazing. The first half is about a German-American boy in love with a non-classified Jewish girl in 1939. The second half is about the man the boy has become, an intelligence agent hunting down the man who destroyed his life. It's well-written, humorous, romantic and dramatic. McCarry was a spy during the Cold War and tosses in just enough detail about the way operatives and operations work to pad the story without making it too technical. The last line is a killer.
Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor is a murder mystery set during the Irish famine and it occurs partly on the eponymous vessel but mainly in Ireland and England. From almost the beginning the victim and murderer are identified and you get to know them and the people who know them. But it turns out not to be as straightforward as the author lays out. The famine is a character itself and its existence drives much of the characters to action (or inaction). The book is organized as a book-within-a-book by a journalist who is himself intimately connected to the story and may not be as disinterested as he tries to be.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne is a modern-day fable/allegory about a naïve German boy, son of a death-camp guard father. He befriends a captive Jewish boy. The story is told entirely from the first boy's p.o.v. Beginning to end, he never comes close to understanding what is happening around him, instead fitting the tragedy into a schema appropriate to his own life. Boyne uses the boy's misunderstanding of certain words to underscore the intent of the true words. (This only works in English, I imagine this loses something in translation.) For example, he misunderstands his father's boss's name as "The Fury", and no amount of correction will dissuade him of this, especially after he witnesses the man's dinner manners. Often, the naivety of both children was incredibly frustrating, which the author does address in an interview included in this edition of the book. It does not have a happy ending, but it does close with a feeling that a lesson has been learned by the one character who needed to learn it most.
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