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Waking from tormented sleep - Two recent coming of age novels

Say you've got a 14-year-old reader. A boy who is has started to welcome a sliver of romance into his postapocalyptic action novels, a girl who is beginning to find the Wings of Fire novels a little simplistic. Maybe you've got a formerly enthusiastic reader who is suddenly uncommunicative, a good student who is newly plagued by self-doubt, a pair of lovebirds who spend half their homework time texting each other emojis. I am trying - unsuccessfully - not to say 'ugh' to that last one. I mean, there's no harm in texting adorable tongue-stuck-out poofy pandabear hearts to your dear one, but GOD. On behalf of your future self, can I just ask you to knock that shit off? to exhibit some self-respect..? 

Maybe just take a break and read a book instead? You might learn something about the way you're acting. Some kids like realistic fiction at this stage - they want examples of how other kids have tried to be cool in the face of first love, they are looking for language they can pilfer when talking back to their parents. That's helpful stuff. But there are also books that examine the darker urges of adolescence, that blow them up and play them out to pitiless extremes.

TO WIT: 

 

 

Jack Gantos's The Trouble in Me is an account of some bad decisions the author made during junior high school in Florida. And When We Were Animals by Joshua Gaylord is a sort of magic-realist novel about adolescence in a small town. Both books treat coming of age as a sacred and terrifying process, marked by blood and fire, perilous but inevitable. 

 

GIVE IT: the Hillary Rodham Clinton Presidential Playset

I've been working on a list of great books to give kids this holiday season for the Baltimore Sun. Did you know I write for the Baltimore Sun? I always forget to link to those articles here. Anyway, I've been up to my armpits in beautifully printed picture books, factbooks, and pop-up books. I've even gone to the local independent bookstores to see items that the library doesn't buy - sticker books, activity books, books with storycubes.

But I haven't been looking at gift books for grownups, not at all. That's because Quirk Books sent me this set of paper dolls and I kind of want to give it to everyone I know, even the people who haaaaate Hillary. Maybe especially them.

It's a cool set. I just showed it to my friend Amanda and at first she said "Whaaaaaat?" and then she looked a little closer and went, "Is that... Bono?" and then I showed her that it also comes with a paper doll ghost of Nancy Reagan and I think she was sold. For me, it was the paper doll of the Notorious RBG. I wonder how Justice Ginsburg and Hillary get along. I kind of get that 'guy's lady' vibe off of Ruth - you know, how some women really groove on men and are a little frosty with other women? I don't know.

 

But I can stick em in my dollhouse diorama and pretend they're having high-level civil discussions while sort of secretly sniping at each other. Oprah's in the room and she's mentally rolling her eyes. "WHY do women DO this to each other?" she'll be thinking. Then paper-doll Bill can come into the room in his jammies and Ruth can twinkle at him and Hillary can be like, "Yeah, here we go." Brigadier General Duckie has no opinion on the matter. He's just waiting around for his tiny little RBG hug.

Can you imagine Bill Clinton back in the White House? He was a pretty good president, but he's such a clown to me now. I don't know who on the other side is manipulating his public image this way, but it's like any day now I expect him to come out with his own brand of beer. Remember Billy Beer?

The set, which collapses to book form, comes with three pop-out scenes: the Oval Office, the Situation Room, and the White House lawn. There's a paper podium and a presidential desk. You can put Hillary in a variety of pantsuits plus a ballgown that comes with an updo. There's even a spare head sporting those bitchin' sunglasses.

 

You get Secret Service agents to guard her paper butt, the ghost of Jackie O to judge her paper butt, and a couple of opponents whose paper butts she can kick. Disappointingly, there's no Trump. I can imagine that back when this project was in its planning stages, the geniuses at Quirk thought about it, "Should we put in Trump?" "Nah. Stunt candidacy. He's only in it to drop out in a huff when he doesn't get the numbers." So instead this set includes Jeb Bush and John Boehner. Remember those guys? And Trump and Bernie are available as a color PDF on the Quirk site.

Keepin' it relevant, Quirk. I like that. 

Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist Painter by Barbara Herkert and Gabi Swiatkowska - review

A picture book biography is more than the product of an author. You could safely say that the responsibility for its appeal is shared by the author, the illustrator, and the subject, especially when the subject is herself an artist.

If you think of the recent picture book bio of Anna Pavlova, Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova, you quickly realize that some people will pick it up because it's about a marvelous ballerina, some will snatch it because they are fans of the author, Laurel Snyder, while still others will be drawn in by artist Julie Morstad's exquisite and sensitive illustrations. 

I'm going to argue that there's one other person who should get a lot of credit for a truly extraordinary picture book biography, and that's the editor. If you listen to Laurel talk about Swan (and you should, on Matthew Winner's Let's Get Busy podcast interview of Laurel and Julie), you'll hear about the editorial process that resulted in words selected like gems from a velvet case and an illustrator who was an inspired choice by Melissa Manlove, the book's editor at Chronicle.

Similarly, in the acknowledgements for Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist Painter, the artist thanks "Christy O." and for good reason. Christy O. can only be the editor Christy Ottaviano, who has her own imprint at Henry Holt. Christy must have been the one who read Barbara Herkert's picture book script about the life of Mary Cassatt, and thought, "Gabi Swiatkowska." At the very least, Christy's the one who signed off on the pairing. And it's a genius matchup. Here's why.

Gabi Swiatkowska has never not produced art that is interesting to look at. Her work is intentionally mannered and old-fashioned looking, but with a knowingness that winks at the reader. A little girl might be dressed in meticulous period gear, all pantaloons and petticoats, but her expression will be one of very specific discontent. See Queen on Wednesday.  I have wondered, however, how this serious-seeming but off-kilter art goes over with kids. Part of the wit of this work is in the interplay between the formal elements - the grown-up colors, the slightly surrealistic perspectives and the painterly textures - and the expressionistic content, and I don't know if children always can catch it.

And then you have Mary Cassatt, who was revolutionary for her time, painting scenes of everyday domestic life through the lens of a new generation of artists. Barbara Herkert does a great job in this book explaining the context of Cassatt's work - she saw the brighter colors and loose-limbed poses of Degas and his dancers and applied those ideas to the subjects she liked to paint.

Self-portrait, circa 1878, Mary Cassatt

When the modern viewer looks at her work, however, all we see are babies and moms. Babies and moms wearing placid expressions, depicted in pastel colors. Yawn. We have trouble seeing what's extraordinary about her work, because the angles and colors and the way she used materials - so shocking at the time - are now perfectly accessible to us.

 

From the book. The difference is subtle, but I see it.

So when you put Gabi Swiatkowska, who has always been interested in what her subjects are THINKING, onto the case of Mary Cassatt, whose content is no longer challenging to the viewer, you get the best of both worlds. A sweeter color range - and fewer random birds - in Ms. Swiatkowska's illustrations, and a sense of challenge and alertness in Ms. Cassatt's paintings. 

This book has finally made Mary Cassatt relevant to me. Good job, ladies!

Post-Candy Meltdown picture book roundup - AUTUMN 2015

Wow, I am finally reclaiming my brain. For about two, maybe three months I have literally not had one unclaimed hour. Since September, I have co-hosted one conference, facilitated at another, spoken at a third - IN EGYPT - and presented at two events. And written three columns for the Baltimore Sun. You should see my house.

But the smoke is clearing and I am getting my feet back under me. Today I finally put away all the Sharpies and Post-Its we took to KidLitCon. I have four tote bags and one box of books to go out the door to the school library and the family reading program at the detention center. I'm not QUITE unpacked from Egypt, BUT last night I read my way through the 18" stack of forthcoming picture books that was sitting on the radiator blocking the cats' view of the front yard. And I have a few I'd like to tell you about:

 

I Am Bear by Ben Bailey Smith and Sav Akyuz

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear. Fuzzy Wuzzy deserved an update.

ANARCHY. Pure doughnut-stealing squirrel-munching purple-haired anarchy, delivered with gemlike verbal economy and fat, saturated art that in places mimics the texture of spray paint on on concrete and in others made me think of jerky calligraphy done with a giant brush.

I am calling this genius.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE!