Pet Peeves on the Loose: Bloggers Chime In, Part 2

As promised, here’s part 2 of our pet peeves survey, starting with Charlotte Taylor at Charlotte’s Library

1.  Series titles that overshadow the title of the actual book you are reading.  Egregious example from 2012--WINGS OF FIRE The Dragonet Prophecy.  I hate not being certain which is the title of the book and which is the title of the series!

2.  Prologues that aren’t necessary.  Which I think is most of them.   It is hard to try to care about a prologue, knowing that in just a few pages you’ll be thrust into the actual story, and even though you may be confused (this is particularly true of action-packed prologues)  you have to concentrate because there are probably Valuable Clues.  I don’t mind mythological prologues about the world being created, though–they tend to be rather soothing and don’t come back to bite you.

3.   Authors using words that have no place in the English language because we don’t actually need any more nouns becoming verbs thank you very much.  Egregious example of 2012–a dragon “gifting” the kingdom with magic in Iron Hearted Violet, by Kelly Barnhill.  The word is GAVE.  Especially if you are quasi-medieval.   (Please, anyone who might have a present for me, just give it to me as a gift.  Don’t gift it).

Ack, but now I remember that [as you yourselves point out]  I detest intrusive narrators of a particular stripe with a passionate intensity–the ones who pretend to be my friends even though I Have Never Met Them!  I am no one’s dear reader, not even Megan Whalen Turner’s (not that she would).  And then, after presuming on an acquaintance of just a few pages, they act like they know what I’m thinking!  They don’t.  My heart isn’t racing, breaking, trembling, or any of the other things they say it is.  It is becoming increasingly hostile.  A narrator who knows her place, however, can be tolerable.  (Question:  are extroverts more tolerant of intrusive narrators?)

We’re not exactly extroverts, but some intrusive narrators are okay (ie the Dear Reader in The Tale of Despereaux). And ditto on the “gifting,” though we’re sometimes guilty of being lazy like that.

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Pet Peeves on the Loose: The Bloggers Have Spoken (1)

After last month’s post about our personal pet peeves, we reached out to various bloggers for their input, and they responded with thoughtful lists of their own of what sets them off. The responses are quite original–no repeats yet!

Monica Edinger at Educating Alice wrote

I saw your post and have been trying to think of pet peeves.  I guess the one that tops it for me isn’t really about what is in a book, but the way people keep using the term “young adult” for children’s books.  There is an attitude from certain adult readers who clearly read children’s books that it “doesn’t matter” and “why make age matter” and so forth.  But in my opinion it DOES matter because it is eliminating a whole group of people who are not speaking for themselves as they are not aware of the issue and won’t be until they are older.  I feel so strongly that there are a particular group of books that are written for children and not teens and not older folks. That they want to read them is great, but calling them young adult to differentiate them from adult titles, but otherwise figure it doesn’t matter is wrong in my book.

Sorry to go on, but I saw a variation of this attitude in the comments to my HuffPo post about The Hobbit.  So it is my top of the top pet peeve.  A commenter on my earlier screed wrote perceptively that adults do this because saying they are reading a YA book is acceptable, but a children’s book would be embarrassing.

Otherwise, I’m never a fan of copycat material from something unique. For instance, I’m seeing some buzz for books using old photos as did the guy for Ms. Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The books sound so copycattish and that bugs me.

Lastly, I’m not a fan of books that are overly earnestly didactic, well-intentioned, but too clearly trying to point a moral or make a lesson.

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Christmas/Holiday Book Gifting List: 2012

Basically, a year-end roundup of our favorite books from 2012. Any of these titles would make an entertaining and enriching gift, whether it’s for the holidays or just because you are the definition of awesome and enjoy gifting books.

Picture Book 

What’s great about Extra Yarn is that while everyone has a different opinion on the story’s takeaway message, they’re all absolutely right. Also wonderful are illustrator Jon Klassen’s quirky pictures of a boring gray town bursting into variegated color as a result of Annabelle’s knitting, particularly when it’s worn by Klassen’s recurring Hat animals. Finally, this story celebrates yarn bombing. What’s not to like?

Middle Grade

We can totally see Liar and Spy or In a Glass Grimmly winning accolades in the coming year. Other standouts include The Secret of the Fortune Wookie and The One and Only Ivan.  However, if you’re looking for that (elusive) distinguished book starring a female protagonist, look no further than Earwig and the Witch for some wonderfully ordinary magic.

YA fiction

It pleases us to proclaim what a good year 2012 has been for YA. On the top of our list is the not-very-festive but absolutely gripping Code Name Verity, which features a fantastic friendship between two very different young women. Also in the depressing but good category are The Wicked and the Just and The Drowned Cities (the prequel/companion novel to Ship Breaker.)  Alternatively, if you’re looking for something more upbeat, we recommend Team Human, which cheekily references the vampire genre yet has fully-fleshed characters (human and otherwise) and a story line that stands on its own.

Bonus

For those who enjoy book sets, the third and final installment of The Montmaray Journals was published this year. Like the previous two books chronicling the plight of the noble (literally) but penniless FitzOsbornes through WWII, The FitzOsbornes at War is a wonderful mix of frothy and serious drama.

We’ve shared our favorites. What are your recommendations for 2012? 

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Pet Peeves on the Loose

They may induce sighs or eye-rolling.  More serious offenders may cause erratic page flipping or even book slamming. Surely you have come across them: the terrible horrible no good very bad pet peeves. We’ve recounted our top five for your viewing displeasure.

1. Orphans attached to prophecies. Harry Potter is the obvious example. Lyra and the Pevensies count, too.

Comment: Can’t orphans have character arcs without “fate” aka author hand waving to explain everything?

2. Precocious kids, idiotic adults. How does a society where all the adults are less intelligent and less capable than their progeny function at all?  A Series of Unfortunate Events comes to mind.

3. When authors think their main characters are more amazing than they actually are. Obviously this is subjective, so we won’t give examples.

Comment: Let readers determine whether they like a character or not. Don’t hit us over the head with a character’s amazing perfection.

4. A corollary of Pet Peeve #3. When characters are perfect, except for one teensy-weensy “flaw,” like being too noble, stubborn, or self-sacrificing. And there are no long term consequences to possessing this “flaw.” Basically, everyone Finnikin looks up to and tries to emulate. Mary Poppins counts, too, but at least we weren’t supposed to be invested in her.

5. Long fantasy names with a string of apostrophes and rarely used letters of the alphabet, like x, v, k and z.

See Prince Balthazar and Trevanion from Finnikin of the Rock and the Ra’zac and Queen Islanzadi from Eragon for a phonetic headache.

What about you? Feel free to gripe about your kidlit pet peeves in the comments below. Or email us at readsforkeeps@gmail.com. We’ll feature your pet peeves in a future post. 

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Long Weekend Book List

Like last year, I have an ambitious reading list for Thanksgiving weekend:

Streams to the River, River to the Sea by Scott O’Dell: the next book in the #nerdDell challenge, which I’ve been neglecting

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente: so far so good, and wonderfully creepy

The FitzOsbornes at War by Michelle Cooper: I will be sorry to finish the Montmaray journals

Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James: Elizabeth Bennet + murder mystery

Happy reading! I hope your weekend is as book-filled and as relaxing as mine will be.

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A Posse of Pachyderms

After much random observation, I’ve come to the entirely unscientific conclusion that elephants are the current stars of kidlit. Some recent books that fit the pattern:

Chained by Lynne Kelly: on my to-read list. Featuring a sad elephant, an evil elephant owner and a kid caught in the middle.

Tua and the Elephant by R. P. Harris: a girl and a fugitive elephant navigate Thailand’s night market.

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate: although Ivan the gorilla steals the show, there would be no plot without the elephants.

Grandpa Green by Lane Smith: offers elephants of the green, vegetated variety.

The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O’Connell and Donna M. Jackson: what it’s like to study elephants for a living.

Jonathan and the Big Blue Boat by Philip C. Stead: features an elephant readers will recognize.

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson: elephants aren’t small. I’m confused (obviously I need to read this book).

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo: funnier and better than The Magician’s Nephew.

And of course, we’re treated to a steady diet of elephant tales through Mo Willems. Gerald and Piggie: perpetuating beloved children’s book creatures since 2007. (Not to mention the pigeon series, which is doing what Gay-Neck, The Story of a Pigeon never could for popularizing urban scavengers).

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Wishful Meetings

Children’s book writers we’d like to meet:

1. Richard Peck – who else can teach the art of pranking and storytelling so masterfully at the same time?

2. Louis Sachar — let’s play bridge! We’d have to re-read The Cardturner to learn the rules, though…

3. Allen Say — would it be creepy if we just watched him draw?

4. Shaun Tan — ditto that.

5. Elizabeth Honey — in Australia, preferably. On a camping trip, with campfire tales about Henni and the rest of the gang!

6. JK Rowling — you know what would be awesome? Harry Potter, the tv series! Starring Hogwarts!

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Fun with Arthritis Cures, and other ALAYMA Reactions

The British cover for Dead End in Norvelt (thanks to Fuse #8 for the tip): so much better than ours.

Um, wow. So Dead End in Norvelt got the Newbery! It was, as Jen predicted, a dark horse triumph. And while I’m still sad at the lack of recognition for Sir Gawain, Okay for Now and Amelia Lost, Gantos’ win makes me positively gleeful. We don’t often get laugh-out-loud funny Newbery winners: The Higher Power of Lucky often made me smile, as did The Tale of Despereaux. But I have to go back to Holes (1999) to find one that made me laugh. Norvelt packs enough humor to transform the most reluctant readers into bookworms (the title of this post references one of the more memorable scenes), and that may be the greatest prize of all.

As for the other award winners (full results from today’s ALA Youth Media Awards here), here are some scattered thoughts:

• This seems to be the year where books won in unexpected categories. After all the Newbery/Caldecott agonizing over Wonderstruck, it was great (and so fitting!) to see it win a Schneider Family Book Award. Same with Drawing from Memory‘s Sibert Honor and I Want My Hat Back! in the Geisel category. It all seems so obvious in retrospect.
• Breaking Stalin’s Nose (Newbery Honor book) reminds me of Moon Over Manifest from last year–something totally unexpected, which I’m now quite looking forward to.
• I’m ecstatic to see the Printz Committee honor The Returning. This is one of those books that reels you in slowly and doesn’t let go, but the slow pacing means it could use an awards-push to generate publicity.
• Okay for Now got recognition for the audio book. I’ve always wondered about Doug’s voice–I imagine it’s either quite deadpan or darkly sarcastic. Now’s a good time to find out.
• Kadir Nelson’s Heart and Soul won a well-deserved Coretta Scott King Award, though I’d hoped for Bird in a Box to get an award as well.
• I haven’t read A Ball for Daisy or Blackout, but Me…Jane and Grandpa Green both deserve as much recognition as they can get.
• Susan Cooper’s Margaret A. Edwards Award! I feel so lucky to have discovered her books this year (or rather re-discovered after a failed attempt to start the series years ago), and even had the chance to meet her during The Exquisite Conversation.

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Overlooked in 2011

Now that 2011 is officially over, I can finally start compiling the requisite end-of-year lists. Last year I posted my most memorable reads of 2010. This time I’m going for books that I loved, but which I think were overlooked in some way:

Migrant by Maxine Trottier, illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault (March 2011)

NYT named this one of the best illustrated books of 2011, so it’s gotten its share of praise, but I haven’t heard much chatter elsewhere. I can honestly say it’s the first picture book I’ve encountered on migrant workers, and it’s written with sensitivity and grace. Anna, the little girl at the heart of the book follows her family from Mexico to Canada in search of seasonal work. She’s old enough to wish for a stable, more “normal” life and young enough to escape the hardships through daydreams. Arsenault’s fantastic illustrations bring Anna’s imagination to life, and the family’s unusual background (they’re Mennonites from Mexico who speak a dialect of German) emphasizes the universal challenges faced by migrant workers all over the world. A wonderful, wonderful book.

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T(of)urkey-Day Reading List

Somewhere between the cooking, eating and socializing, I intend to steal some quality reading time. Here’s what I hope to get through by the end of the week:

I wish I could make spine poems like these wonderful compositions, but the best I can hope for is that the warrior sheep will find a flint heart in their quest, and that Charles and Emma find their lives changed by a girl in need of some serious painkillers. We’ll see how that works out.

What’s on your Thanksgiving reading list?

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