Christine Conway
Kensington Park Library


I attended the “Books for the Beast” conference sponsored by Enoch Pratt Library on October 27. This young adult literature conference features lectures and group discussions focused on quality literature for teen customers. I attended 4 sessions: the plenary session at which YA author Gale Giles spoke: two breakout sessions on fantasy/science fiction and real life YA books; and a final session with Mark Siegel, editor for First Second graphic novels.

YA author Gail Giles, often called a dark, edgy, contemporary writer, gave an eclectic and fascinating talk. Her books include Shattering Glass, Playing in Traffic, Breath of the Dragon, and Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters among others. She spoke of her sensitivity to teen choices and consequences after living her own “unsafe at home” childhood. Young people, she said, want to look at the dark side…they feel betrayed by all the “good guys” winning stuff in the media…so I wanted, she said, to write about the last thing that happens to young people…the consequences (not always good, but real) of their choices.
Giles also spoke eloquently about the librarian who “saved my life.” Giles was a dark, edgy teen, very wild, living in a difficult home. “Nancy Drew will never be your friend,” she says the librarian told her and recommended a book called The Runner about a boy and his father trying to catch a wild horse on a Montana ranch—they couldn’t tame him, but they could “gentle” him. “What about the book would you change?” the librarian told Giles, respecting her opinion. From there this relationship led Giles to more and more titles suited to her “quirky” ways.

Recommended titles read by participants this year in my groups include:
Witch’s Boy by Michael Gruber. Kirkus says… “Threading recognizable but artfully altered fairy tales throughout, Gruber crafts a hefty bildungsroman that takes an ugly foundling child from dour innocence through an utterly hellish adolescence to joyful maturity.”
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan. School Library Journal… “Every selection in this rich collection is strange and startling, a glimpse into weird, wondrous, and sometimes terrifying worlds.”
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. Kirkus… “With a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction to a dystopic future promises an exciting series. Tally is almost 16 and breathlessly eager: On her birthday, like everyone else, she'll undergo extensive surgery to become a Pretty. She's only known life as an Ugly (everyone's considered hideous before surgery), whereas after she "turns," she'll have the huge eyes, perfect skin, and new bone structure that biology and evolution have determined to be objectively beautiful.”

Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar (very good on CD). Kirkus… “Scott's wacky life always plays out in totally unexpected ways. His excitement to be a freshman, finally, is overturned by the horrible reality where he's whacked on the head on the bus, his spare change is stolen, he's totally ignored by all females and he constantly suffers being the lowliest of the low. Even at home, things have turned upside down with older hunky brother's return to base and Mom's surprise announcement of a new sibling to come. Scott nicknames the new arrival Smelly—a combo of Sean and Emily appropriate for either gender, and writes a "NOT a diary" journal with advice and tips for the future.”
Girl Stories by Lauren Weinstein. “A full-length graphic novel documents one girl's journey through adolescence, where she deals with embarrassing parents, bullies, best friends, boyfriends, breakups, and trying to fit in.”

Mark Siegel, afternoon speaker talked of the changing world of graphic novels. One needs a new “vocabulary” to read such novels successfully, he says. Siegel compared this to learning how to “read” and experience ballet. His wife was a ballet dancer and he really wasn’t a ballet guy, he said. Once he learned the pieces of what makes up dance and its catalog he reached an “entry point” able to see ballet’s “vocabulary” appreciate a particular ballet or ballet performance…to “get” meaning and beauty. Graphic novels have moved beyond comics and storyline narratives, Siegel says, to become something else… with its own visual cues and literary history…something that is not read in a linear way as non-graphic novels are. Siegel is hoping and seeing he says, that if one likes to read, graphic novels are becoming more and more part a one’s regular reading diet. There is a lot of talent bubbling up just now with scripts for graphic novels that in 3-5 years, graphic novels will be solidly part of our literary canon, says Siegel.

I highly recommend the “Books for the Beast” conference generally held every two years in Baltimore. Great insight into what’s new in YA lit.----Christine Conway/Kensington Park