An Interview with Goliath Author Scott Westerfeld!

I LOVE all things steampunk. And I LOVE anything by Scott Westerfeld. So when I laid my hands on Leviathan, the first of his steampunk-inspired, totally amazing series in the fall of 2009, I was smitten. Behemoth came out next, and this fall the conclusion to the series arrived in our little bookstore to much fanfare (mostly from me). Scoot over here to see my review of Goliath to get a feel of what this series is all about.

The good folks at Simon and Schuster Canada set me up with an interview with Scott Westerfeld and his thoughtful answers are reproduced below. It seems much more steampunk to use last names only so Scott is "Mr. Westerfeld", and I will be, um... "Mrs. Sommerfield -Smith" (oh, why not?) So, as they say, tie up your dirigible and stay awhile!

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: You’ve done an amazing job of creating a fascinating alternate WWI history in the Leviathan series. You create some great “what if” scenarios and divisions (Clankers vs. Darwinists, boys vs. girls (!)). In your afterword to Leviathan you mention that “the nature of steampunk is blending future and past” and that your series “is as much about possible futures as alternate pasts.” Could you elaborate on this?

Mr. Westerfeld: Steampunk is about messing with history, Victorian history in particular. It's about bringing a flame-thrower to a tea party, while still wearing an appropriate silk cravat. So it's not just a mix of future and past, but of refinement and mayhem.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: Why did you decide to give these novels a steampunk aesthetic? Where did you first encounter steampunk?

Mr. Westerfeld: My first steampunk experience was at Disney World. I was about eight years old, and went on the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride. Something about a nuclear submarine with a pipe organ and baroque stylings really clicked with me. It's that strange mix of technologies and time periods that make certain people love steampunk.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: I’ve noticed steampunk appearing more and more in literature, but also movies and television. Neil Gaiman recently wrote an episode of Doctor Who that had a decidedly steampunk feel. Are there any TV shows with a steampunk look/philosophy that have drawn your attention?

Mr. Westerfeld: I think the movie world (and more recently TV) likes the look and feel of steampunk, but doesn't know what to do with its broader themes yet. Steampunk is about rewriting history, in effect, pushing back the constraints that society placed on people because of their gender or beliefs or who their parents were. And there has yet to be a TV version of steampunk that addresses that larger project. I will admit that I grew up with The Wild, Wild West, however, and that I desperately wanted my own personal gizmo-filled train car.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: In addition to your extremely successful YA series’ you’ve written five science fiction novels for adults. Why did you decide to write for young adults? What are the particular merits of writing for this audience?

Mr. Westerfeld: Teenagers are voracious readers, they send more and better fan mail, and they aren't as limited in their genre choices as adults. But I think the coolest thing about them is how engaged with language they are. At any given moment, more teenagers than adults are studying a foreign language, writing poetry, memorizing song lyrics, and making up slang. Teens are still acquiring language to some extent, and thus they take more joy and interest in the way novels play with words. As a writer who likes to generate slang and other kinds of neologisms, I find them a much more engaged and exciting audience with which to communicate.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: Keith Thompson’s illustrations in the three novels are stunning. I love it when books are illustrated with black and white illustrations. At any time did you and Keith Thompson work together to come up with a “look” for the illustrations, or were writing and illustrating two separate endeavours?

Mr. Westerfeld: I would send Keith first drafts of three or four chapters at a time, and he would respond very quickly with sketches, so we were bouncing back and forth from the beginning. Often I would rewrite based on his illustrations, because I soon found that he was a better engineer than me, and sometimes a better researcher as well. So at times I would be quite general, "Something's going to chase in them in a couple of chapters. Could you draw something fast?" and then let my writing follow his art.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: The internet, do you love it or hate it? Does it help or hinder you as a writer? Are there benefits and/or pitfalls to having a presence online while being an active writer?

Mr. Westerfeld: I think being in touch with readers is a great experience. Teens are wonderfully frank about what they like and dislike in my fiction, which is a really great kind of feedback to get. But the best thing about the internet is the way that teens engage each other, forming communities of readers. And these communities spread outward from the books to the wider world, as with the Harry Potter Alliance and its charitable works. A love of books has always been a way for like-minded people to find each other, and the internet has only made that project more vast and wonderful.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: Your series, Uglies, has a brilliant new sci-fi take on that old (teenage) chestnut: “Be yourself”. In Leviathan, Deryn disguises herself as a boy to join the British Air Force and must be careful not to let her secret slip. I like the fact that you’ve drawn Deryn as an independent, strong-willed young woman, but she’s also not without insecurities and prejudices. What is so unique about this time in a child’s life when they are coming-of-age, and why is it such a fascinating theme to write (and read!) about?

Mr. Westerfeld: I agree that the theme of teenage fiction is Identity. Young people are still figuring out who they are, after all. (Everyone is, really, but teenagers are better at admitting it.) Because the teenage years are filled with epic firsts—first love, first betrayal, first true loss—it's a tremendously dramatic time to write about.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: I like the way the adults in this novel, particularly Dr. Nora Barlow, seem to be positive influences on Deryn and Alek. Was this a conscious choice?

Mr. Westerfeld:I think Barlow and Volger have both positive and negative aspects. They provide a lot of good advice to their young charges, but their overall worldview is one of conflict and competition. Deryn and Alek, on the other hand, are learning the importance of working together across lines of ideology and class. So it's up to my younger characters to separate the good from the bad when it comes to their elders' example and counsel.

Mrs. Sommerfield-Smith: And do you categorize, if you could categorize your books at all, as speculative fiction? If so, what are the freedoms of writing in this genre? Are there any limitations? If not, what sets your books outside the categorization of speculative fiction?

Mr. Westerfeld: I'm lucky in writing for young adults, in that my books don't get categorized as much. I've written science fiction, fantasy, contemporary realism, and now steampunk, and yet all my books can sit happily together in the teen section of the bookstore. And that's all us writers can really ask for, that our books be findable! All the rest of it is for the critics to worry about.

An Interview with Author Anna Humphrey!

Anna Humphrey is the author of two amazing young adult novels: Rhymes with Cupid (HarperTeen), and most recently, Mission (Un)Popular (Disney/Hyperion). Rhymes with Cupid is a light-hearted romance that takes place around Valentine's Day. Let me just say that this little book had me grinning from ear-to-ear the whole time. Seriously. Grinning like an idiot.

Mission (Un)Popular is the story of Margot Button, a newly-minted seventh grader who struggles to reinvent herself in the seemingly perfect setting of a new school, a.k.a., new beginning. But her new best friend, Em, is trouble with with a capital T: wildly manipulative, selfish and hiding a troubled past. I loved how Margot's character deals with the turmoil: not neatly, in a 1/2 hour sitcom kind of way, but messily, realistically and honestly.

Anna's a busy mother of two on top of her full-time job as a writer, and as you'll see below, she is made of awesome. I hope you enjoy our chat!

Erica: Hi Anna. Thanks for making time today.

Anna: Hi Erica!

Erica: 2011 has been a big year for you... two books in one year!

Anna: It's definitely been busy! I also had a baby somewhere in there. It's all been a bit of a blur.

Erica: I bet! You have two young children at home. What are the advantages and disadvantages of working from home?

Anna: There are so many advantages, really. I love that I (mostly) get to set my own schedule and that I can fit the stuff of life (laundry, errands, etc.) around my writing time. I also love the flexibility it gives me when it comes to my kids. They go to daycare part time, but we still get to spend the afternoons together.

Anna: And as for the disadvantages... my office supplies have a way of ending up in my daughter's craft box... but that's about the worst of it.

Erica: Aww. So cute. Your second novel (or second to be published), Mission (Un)Popular, takes place in junior high school. The main character, Margot Button, refers to the eve of a new school year as “School Year’s Eve”. I love this expression! Why do you think the transition between grade six and grade seven is such a magical (yet terrifying!) time?

Anna: I think it's magical (or, it was for me, and it is for Margot) because changing schools seems like such a fresh start--a real opportunity to reinvent yourself. But it's definitely terrifying, too. First of all, because kids can be SO ruthless and mean at that age. And also because trying to become a new, improved version of yourself isn't easy, and it never comes without risk.

Erica: I absolutely agree. There is a power shift that occurs in young girls not just in middle school, but even as young as kindergarten. Divisions happen, cliques form and girls are pitted against one another. Why are girls so mean to each other? And why is this so much more intense in the pre-teen years?

Anna: God! I wish I knew... Maybe then I could protect my daughter from it. I worry about girls. I really do. My daughter's in kindergarten and, like you say, it's already happening to some degree. If I had to guess why girls get mean, I guess I'd say it all comes down to our fear of not being good enough, or worthy enough. We take each other down to make ourselves feel better and safer, socially speaking. It's sad and wrong, but I think every one of us has been guilty of doing it at one point or another. And it gets especially bad in the preteen years, I think, because that's when you start taking a really close look at your peers and trying to figure out where you fit in, or IF you fit in.

Erica: Your book has some pretty powerful stuff to say about self-esteem and conforming to peer pressure. How do you hope your book will be received by girls that are Margot’s age?

Anna: I hope they'll be able to read it, and laugh in places, and not feel preached to in any way. Kids that age have enough people telling them what to do. If they're able to relate to Margot and what she's going through, and maybe cheer her on as she comes to realize what's right for her... well, that'd be more than enough for me.

Erica: I think you've hit the nail on the head. Kids this age don't want to be preached to. Lord knows that I didn't listen when my parents told me that the mean girls in grade seven were just "jealous." "Jealous of what?" was all I could think!

Erica: One of the things that I noted while reading Mission (Un)Popular was that Margot’s character is really believable. Thank you for not writing Margot as a child. Twelve year olds, whether we like it or not, know and experience a lot more than we’d like to admit. Do you think twelve-year-old girls have changed significantly over the years?

Erica: I mean, from our experience of seventh grade to what it's like today?

Anna: Agreed. Twelve year olds definitely know more (and have been through more) than most parents or other adults like to admit... And I'm willing to bet that today's twelve year olds are up against even more than we were at that age. I mean, everything just seems to move faster these days, don't you think?

Erica: Yes. The internet has become a whole new tool for social interaction and bullying. In fact, in your novel, Margot and her best friend, Erika, sort of breakup over the internet. On your blog, you have some pretty cute musings on what it means to be a best friend. What is your best friend like?

Anna: My best friend is made of rainbows. Seriously. She's amazing. Loyal and honest and smart and funny and always, always there for me. She's the one I call when everyone in the entire house has the flu, and she shows up every time. I've known her since I was 15 . Actually, Mission (Un)Popular is dedicated to her.

Erica: Yes! I noticed the dedication. She sounds AMAZING. You're really lucky!

Erica: I noticed some serious Sarah Dessen love on your blog! What other authors would you love to have coffee with?

Anna: I also have a great big author-crush on Susan Juby. She wrote Alice, I Think, and its two sequels. She's hilarious. She's also Canadian, and that makes me love her even more. Also, Gordon Korman. I could read I Want to Go Home a hundred times and not be sick of it.

Erica: Susan Juby! Totally worthy of an author crush! Gordon Korman's great too! One last question: You'll be leading writing workshops for 9 to 12 year olds this fall at TPL (Toronto Public Library). Magical or terrifying?

Anna: Oh. SO terrifying. Don't tell the Toronto Public Library this, but I have no idea what I'm doing, and public speaking makes me feel barfy. That said, I'm also really excited about the opportunity to write with a group of girls. I think that, once I get over my nerves, we're going to have an amazing time together.

Anna: Or guys... sorry. I should add that guys are totally welcome to sign up, too! I hope some will!

Erica: Thanks for your time, Anna! You are my new author crush.

Anna: Awe. Shucks. Thanks, Erica. It was great talking with you!

*How I Live Now* by Meg Rosoff -- A Re-reading Retrospective!

"It would be much easier to tell this story if it were all about a chaste and perfect love between Two Children Against the World at an Extreme Time in History but let’s face it that would be a load of crap"

How I Live Now, like other really great books, is a world of its own.

It’s also Meg’s first book, which renders me agog. Her sister’s death from cancer was the impetus to write, and at the time HILN was slated for publication she herself was diagnosed with the disease. I have read a few interviews with Meg and I have this sense of her as a lady who rightfully sees doubt and fear as huge impediments to life. The world that Daisy finds herself living in is one where you live day by day, and at times hour by hour. Meg has a wise and wide perspective and it makes HILN a deeply resonant book.

"I like writing for and about teens because it's a very extreme time of life, and that makes for intense transformations, intense possibilities for growth. I think many people find their teens a difficult and disturbing time, but also a time of great excitement and intensity. As a writer, you can't ask for a better set-up than that."
(Biography.jrank.org referencing source on Bookbrowse.com)

Daisy is 15 and on top of the intense transformational period of being a teen, she finds herself in the explosive transformative time of war. The book opens with her arrival in England, self-exiled from her dad’s home in New York, leaving behind a new step-mom and step-sister. She intends on staying with cousins she’s never met and the sister of her deceased mother. What she finds is a sprawling home in the countryside and a wonderfully unruly gang of kids who smoke and drive and make her feel more like herself then she ever remembers feeling.

Reading this book again I anticipated my favourite scenes being replayed. One of my excitements is the first time Daisy sees the house, which “is practically indescribable if the only sort of houses you’ve lived in before are apartments in New York City.” There is this garden—actually wildness and growing things are a huge part of the imagery during the first part of the story—that appears again at the end of the book and had me captivated a second time:

Climbing up the front of the house is a huge vine with a stem so thick it must have been growing there for hundreds of years but there aren’t any flowers on it yet, I guess because it’s too early. Behind the house and up some stone steps is a square garden surrounded by high brick walls and in there are tons of flowers blooming already all in shades of white. In one corner there’s a stone angel about the size of a child, very worn, with folded wings and Piper told me it was a child who lived in the house hundreds of years ago and is buried in the garden.

From an interview with Meg we did last May, I asked her about the child in the garden because I loved the imagery and what it suggested. She said that, “The angel in the garden was originally thrown in as a casual detail, but I found I liked what it suggested and added another reference to it at the end. Take your pick -- the death of innocence, the reminder that in the midst of life we are in death (to coin a phrase), mortality juxtaposed with rebirth (the bulbs and the roses in the garden) and also a little reminder to Daisy that she is not the centre of the universe -- that people have lived and died before she was even born.”

When the garden pops back up at the end of the story I was so excited and it gave me goosebumps. With a second reading the way that flora and fauna weave through the story is so vivid and perfect. Also one of my favourite scenes is the picnic that the cousins have just before their lives change. In the first part of the book these kids live outside time in a visceral and romantic connection to nature. It was very vivid for me:

We got to a place by a river and parked the jeep and got out and Isaac carried all the fishing stuff, and Edmond brought lunch and a blanket to lie on and although the day wasn’t very warm, I made a nest for myself by trampling down a little patch in the tall grass and put the blanket down and lay very still and as the sun rose up in the sky I warmed up even more and all I could hear was the sound of Edmond talking in a steady low stream of conversation to the fish, and Piper singing her odd song, and the occasional splash of the river or a bird rising into the air near us and singing its heart out.

I was thinking about almost nothing except that bird and then Edmond was next to my ear whispering Skylark, and I just nodded, knowing it was futile to ask how he knew the answers to questions you hadn’t even got around to asking yet.

There’s this magical realism in the book that I really enjoyed. It was more like Magic Realism Light, I suppose. Piper, Edmond and his twin Isaac share this unspoken connection with each other and with animals. Almost like they can read each other’s minds. Interestingly, Osbert, their older brother who goes all Hitler Youth, doesn’t connect with them in this way, or even close. Daisy finds a strong connection with Edmond, even when they are far apart. There is this amazing scene where Piper refuses to go back into their house near the end because of the ghosts, and even Daisy can still hear echoes of their old life and of the people who were in the house. Daisy is wandering around and is describing the unreal feel of home after wartime.

And while Daisy and Edmond are separated, Daisy *knows* that he is still alive. She sometimes gets a sense of what he's seeing and feeling. Although this connection is not ultimate, as seen when Edmond's mind and heart are lost to what he's experienced, which Daisy believes, must have been far worse than what she and Piper had witnessed. Meg writes about this connection very beautifully and believably.

When I read HILN for the first time this year I thought it was set in WWII. The back cover mentions a war and I just assumed, probably because it's such a hot topic for fiction. Then I did a double-take when Daisy talks about cell phone reception. It's funny, even when Edmond picks her up at the airport he seems to be a creature out of another time period. He smokes, he's assured, and way older than he seems. I kept forgetting his actual age, which I believe is like 12-13 (?), younger than Daisy for sure. Enough to make her very aware that, had they not been living virtually parent-less in a beautiful countryside house which seems to stand outside of time, there would be nothing "Okay" about their romance. Although they weren't very "romantic" with each other. There was a sweetness and a sense of first discovery--what it would feel like to find out you have a twin, and he/she's beautiful, and you know it's wrong but *everything* in the world is absolutely wrong right at this moment, so hey.

I keep seeing HILN labelled Dystopian and on Dystopian book lists and such. And I get it because the war that erupts, or rather infiltrates slowly and feeds on confusion and fear, isn't any war in particular. HILN feels like the setting could be five minutes from now. Meg mentions that the war in the book is a pastiche of modern conflicts, including WWII, but not limited to it. HILN isn't historical fiction but a story that talks about our future. The way that war will be fought--the breakdown in technology and our dependence on it. So in this way I can see it as Dystopian. The pervading fear and helplessness that sets in once all electrical communication ends is very quick. People turn on each other and no one knows what's going on.

I really enjoyed re-reading How I Live Now. I knew what was going to happen so I was able to soften my focus and catch the subtleties. There is so much in this book that I haven't covered, which is one of the downfalls of writing a spoiler-free review! There's so much to take away.

HILN really sticks with you.

What did you think of it? I'm excited to see your comments!

Mandy

A Very Special Review of *Sweet Valley High #1 Double Love* by Francine Pascal and DOUBLE Book Giveaway!

Katie from Read What You Know is the coolest; when she heard that I was interested in reading the Sweet Valley High novel, Double Love, for the first time, she contacted me with a personal challenge! She proposed that I read Double Love as a first-read while she would take it on as a re-read. Then we'd have an e-mail "sleepover" and gossip about Francine Pascal's well-loved series.

What follows is my review of Double Love, the new re-make edition, and the resulting discussion Katie and I had about our reading experience.

***

I didn't grow up reading Sweet Valley High, so I felt compelled to read the first book in the series, Double Love, now that the re-issue editions are available. Originally published in 1983, Random House had someone go through the novels and update them for a more modern audience, adding things like cell phones, laptops, and updated car models. The cover is updated too, obviously, but they've used the same model twice for the twins! I don't mind the cover image because, again, I didn't grow up reading SVH, so I don't have a basis for what the Wakefield twins look like.

I want to start out by saying that Jessica is my favourite twin. She's a spaz and is ridiculous at times, but I just like her. The whole them being twins thing and everyone not being able to tell the difference most of the time was very silly at times. It's mentioned at the beginning that the only thing that sets them apart is a tiny mole on a shoulder, their clothing preferences and one of them wears a watch consistently. "Oh yeah, that's Elizabeth, you can always ask her the time". The story opens with Jessica checking herself out in the mirror when Elizabeth jumps in the shower to get ready for school and Todd Wilkins phones, looking for Liz. This is when you get a sense of how potentially evil Jessica can be. She initially has little interest in Todd, until she finds out he likes her sister, then her frenemy side comes out at she tries to hook Todd for herself. She tells him that Liz is both a bookworm school-obsessed nerd and a promiscuous man-eater. And Todd, the goon, never questions her. Here's a sneak-peek to see just how hot Todd is:

Elizabeth's knees actually felt weak as she looked into his warm brown eyes. She wished she had something to lean on. Something other than his gorgeous, athletic, tan bod.

Okay so I just wanted to write the word "bod". And preppy, which is how Todd is constantly described as. I totally remember when people dressed "preppy". Jessica is a piece of work. She latches onto Todd and says anything just to keep his attention away from Elizabeth. Her own SISTER! And they're friends in the book, which makes it more evil-seeming. Except, the great thing about Jess' character is that she just does what she does without any thought whatsoever. You can't blame her for the way she acts because it's not an act; this is Jessica Wakefield. Even when she's spreading rumors that a boy has raped her when he refused to kiss her goodnight at the end of their date, Jess is insane, but true to her nature. And there's something redeeming about her as well; she knows what she wants and she gets it, usually. Then she gets bored of it and moves on very quickly. Here's some redeeming Jessica Wakefield (Todd is at the dance with her but he's been eyeing Liz all night when...):

Why don't you go see what Elizabeth and Enid are talking about? From the look on your face you're dying to know."Todd blushed slightly and Jessica brushed by him, heading for the snack table and a few friends gathered there. If that didn't wake Todd up to his rude behaviour--if there wasn't a complete turnaround by the time she got back--then she was just going to have to take drastic measures. Guys didn't look at other girls when they were out with Jessica Wakefield. It simply was not done.

What self-confidence! Jess has this incredible sense of her self-worth, which is inflated, but this type of confidence is enviable! Even if she wastes it on silly things like thinking she wants guys like Rick Andover, this psycho dropout car-racing drunk, to go out with her. Throughout the whole story, Jessica pretends she's Elizabeth whenever she does something bad or dangerous and then tells Todd that this is typical Liz behaviour. I was surprised by how righteous Todd is in the book, and some of Liz's friends. And I felt that Liz should have channeled Jess a little more when it comes to making boys treat you the way you deserve, i.e. Todd should have been put through the ringer about just blankly accepting that Liz was the way Jess described. He just got all hoity and judgy and didn't even speak with Liz directly, although Jess had been so intense about her conquest she rarely let the two have a moment alone together.

Double Love was pleasantly goofy in parts, too. I was laughing where humour probably wasn't intended. I couldn't help myself; some of the scenarios and dialogue are hilarious. Even though it has been updated, Sweet Valley High still has an 80's sensibility; reading it felt like I was in my PJs watching a weekend marathon of Beverley Hills 90210, especially the "Donna Martin Graduates!" episode.

A chat with Katie:

(Mandy) You mention Betsy in your review. I don't remember her at all. Is she in the first book? Who is she? I wonder if the updated version wrote her out?

(Katie) Betsy's the girl that the twins think Steven is going out with. (He's actually going out with her older sister, Tricia, scandal!) She's the typical wrong side of the tracks girl with a drug history, etc. She's a reoccurring character, becoming more important in later installments of the book. (She's in the updated version, but just mentioned passingly.)

(Mandy) Oh yeah!! That part was so funny. Reading, I didn't care at all about Steven's supposedly secret affair. Then when the girls find out that it's not with Betsy, who is considered a trashy drug-addict like her father, but with Tricia, the girls are like "well actually Trish is okay, we approve". It was hilarious, like no stigma had attached itself to Trish even though they came down on Betsy so hard about her dad being a drug dealer or something like that. So silly.

(Katie) Well, Trish is the angel of that family -- of course she gets a pass. Just wait until you find out what happens to her character in the series though!**

(Mandy) How does the Dairi Burger compare to Casa Del Sol, from the original story? Why do you think they would re-write such an iconic part of SVH? Even when they remade Beverley Hills 90210 they kept a version of The Peach Pit.

(Katie) They're pretty much the same, honestly. It's their local restaurant hang-out. But I think it's the most ridiculous change ever. What would "Saved by the Bell" be without The Max? What would "Buffy" be like without The Bronze? [Okay, I am seriously dating myself with these references.] What would "Grey's Anatomy" be without The Emerald City Bar? [Yay, current reference!] My issue with the change here is that the restaurant represents the old SVH for me (partially because of the fabulous re-read/critique blog, The Dairi Burger), and Casa Del Sol doesn't add anything to the new SVH. It doesn't establish setting. It doesn't modernize the text. I think the decision to change the restaurant was to show that the books have changed, have been updated. I'm just surprised they choose this to update. Have the twins wear Tiffany's heart charms instead of lavalieres. (I still remember not knowing what a lavaliere was as a teen in the nineties.) I just find it weird how they chose what to update versus what they kept.

(Mandy) Yeah, I have no idea what a lavaliere is. I just assumed they look like the silver necklaces the girls are wearing on the cover. I'm googling it now and still don't really know. How is it different than just a necklace? Although here's something interesting from Wikipedia: "In the Greek system in American colleges, it refers specifically to a necklace bearing a fraternity's or sorority's letters. An accepted gift of a lavalier, called lavaliering, indicates a romantic commitment that may develop into a long term engagement, and marriage". And Liz IS stuck with Jess for the long term!

(Katie) Very true! And it brings me a great segue to talk about the sorority/fraternity stuff in the original publication of "Double Love." Both Jessica and Elizabeth are accepted into Pi Beta Alpha in the book and the dance is originally a sorority/fraternity mixer sponsored by the fraternity. I remember, even as a tween in the 90s, knowing that there weren't sororities/fraternities in high school. I was actually really glad that they removed this subplot when they updated the books. Although I am curious how some of the more sorority related plot lines are going to be updated...**

(Mandy) Ghostwritten fiction was more popular in the 80's and 90's. I had to say that it was strange reading a book "written" by Francine Pascal, when it was really written by Kate William (which is a pseudonym). With the internet, readers can now follow author blogs and website updates; the role of the author is more immediate. Would a series like SVH, with its ghostwriters, happen today? Were you conscious of the book being ghostwritten as you re-read SVH?

(Katie) I had no idea the series was ghostwritten as a tween. I had no idea what a ghostwriter was (other than the PBS show...yeah), and I think it's because of my history with the books that it didn't bother me. I don't think a series like SVH would work now-a-days. Authors are so important to teens and the Internet makes it far too easy to find out about ghostwriters.

(Mandy) *singsong* Ghostwriter...WORD!

And there's more! Mosey over to Katie's blog to see her full review of Double Love, some more of our book gossip and a book giveaway for the new edition of SVH: Double Love! Both Katie and I have a copy of the book to give away. So leave your name and e-mail here to enter and then go to Katie's blog and enter again for her copy! Twice the chance to win--think of it as a tribute to the Wakefield Twins! Good Luck! (Giveaway ends November 21st)

Mandy

P.S. Katie, you're awesome!!

A Special Guest Blog Post by *Meg Rosoff*!

I love lists, especially book lists. When I was preparing my own list of dystopian fiction to read this week, I kept seeing one title pop up on more than one occassion: How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. I have already read this book (actually it ranks as one of my faves of all time), and my initial reaction was an incredulous "hehn?". On the one hand I can totally see it; How I Live Now has a whiff of specualtive fiction about it. But I was interested to know what Meg thought about the categorization of dystopian in general, and in particular in relation to her books. Read on for Meg's response.

***

Is it terrible to admit that my heart sinks a little when I hear the words “dystopian fiction”? As for “dystopian teen fiction”, well, I might have to take to my bed. All those flooded, ravaged worlds, burnt worlds. The last man (or woman or child) alive. Ecological disasters, global warming, nuclear war.

I’m enough of a depressive already without all the handbooks.

Having said that, it’s hard to escape the fact that one (maybe even two) of my books brush up against the dystopian – How I Live Now, set in a very-near-future WWIII, and What I Was, which finishes in 2050 and a flooded eastern coast of Suffolk. (The latter scenario, by the way, is not one I made up – I own a little house on that coast, and no one, including the bank, expects it to last more than another twenty or thirty years.)

The big question, I suppose, is why so many writers are attracted to the subject, and why now, particularly? The twentieth century wasn’t short on anxiety thanks to (just for starters) two world wars, a worldwide flu pandemic, economic depression, and the advent of nuclear weapons.

But perhaps that led to more concrete worries – about war, disease and poverty. Today’s sources of anxiety already read like fiction. Think of genetically engineered babies, polar bears drowning in ice-less seas, smart weapons, cryogenics. Or as my husband remarked recently over a display of cod fillets, “we can’t eat them. It’s like eating leopard.”

This may all be beside the point. Writers from Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy on down are producing dystopian stories, and readers are buying them. As for me? I like to take refuge in literary fiction, because it’s the pigeonhole in which I feel least cramped. Once there, I have a tendency to rub up against all sorts of genres – fantasy, history, adult, teen, whatever. Mostly I write about whatever pops into my head. Can’t help it.

Meg Rosoff's Website

Thanks so much, Meg!

I also want to point out the neat coincidence of the previous guest blog post by Carrie Ryan, who mentions reading How I Live Now just before writing The Forest of Hands an Teeth.

I've Got Love for *Lauren Myracle*

The first book I read by Lauren Myracle was Kissing Kate. It's her first novel for teens and was an ALA Best Book when it came out. And it is good. Good enough to give me blanket interest in anything else Lauren writes--Lauren writes a grocery list? Pass it on. Can I Get it signed?

Kissing Kate was one of those quiet stories where you think maybe nothing is happening plot-wise until you reach the end and realize that the entire world has come down in slo-mo on Lissa's head and she's not exactly the same girl you started the book with. Lissa and Kate have been best friends 4-eva until Lissa kisses Kate at a party one night when everyone's boundaries are down. While Kate takes a few weeks away from Lissa, avoiding her, when Kate attempts to finally reach out to L, she is rebuked. Although Kate's form of reaching out is attempting to talk Lissa out of being a lesbian. Instead, Lissa meets Ariel, a girl who is vibrant and outspoken and just a little crazy, and Lissa finds a new way to see herself.

Kissing Kate could have easily fallen into the tone of an after-school special but remained afloat; one of my favourite teen books.

Then I read Rhymes With Witches because I loved the title and the cover-art. A very different book than Kissing Kate, RWW is a bit like Carrie and Mean Girls put together. Jane is a freshamn and is practically invisible. Although still bullied by the most popular group of girls in school, the Bitches. One day Jane kind of snaps and decides that she wants to BE one of these girls. Maybe just to get an insight into how they see her. But she realizes that the sacrifices made to be a Bitch get to be too much, even for social-climber Jane. There is a paranormal aspect to the story although the tone is more a focus on popularity and what it takes to stay on top; popularity as a series of choices along the way. Anything paranormal is a bit like Buffy The Vampire Slayer; a bit of a metaphor for the real horrors of highschool.

And then I read Bliss because it's a bit of a prequel to RWW. You can definately read it as a stand alone, and I would recommend it over RWW, if you were stuck in a room on the set of Saw 32 and had to read only one book of two before a gruesome death and these were your only choices. Otherwise, read them both.

Bliss is probably more like Carrie that RWW. It's set in 1969 and the chapters are interspersed with quotes from The Andy Griffith Show and news articles about the Charles Manson Family murders. The whole tone has this pitch-perfect eeriness. Bliss is dumped off on her affluent grandmother's porch after her hippie parents take off unfettered. She starts boarding school and is a total fish-out-of-water as she's only ever grown up in a commune making her own soap. Her need to make friends places her perfectly in the grasp of a schoolmate's dark obsession with a historic murder. Bliss is a bit of a psychic and her sensitivity is preyed upon by an incredibly unstable girl.

One thing that can be said about Lauren is that she's a good writer of
the highschool dynamic and it's potential to get very dark.

Mandy

Are We Ever Too Old for *Choose Your Own Adventure* Books?

Okay *prepare yourself because I wasn't*. Random House has a line of books called The What If Books and they are Choose Your Own Adventure stories for older teens. I found a few of them at a used book store the other day and my immediate reaction was, "Psshh, What?".

So I'm going to walk you through the first one in the series, What If...Everyone Knew Your Name, by Liz Ruckdeschel and Sara James. Haley Miller is your alter ego. She's fairly average; averagely smart, averagely dressed, with a potential to either be very cool or very nerdy. She's kind of a blank slate until you choose how she'll react to her first few weeks at a new school, Hillsdale High:

Every decision Haley faces, you get to make for her. You determine her fortune--her grades, her friends, her love life. With Haley's many positive traits, you'll have no trouble helping her achieve success...or will you?

Haley wakes up to her new life to her dog licking her face and her mom in the front seat of the car flipping through radio stations. They are on their way to their new house in the suburbs. They'd been driving from their old house in California and have just pulled up in their new driveway. MeHaley already has an eye for the boys next door:

These were grade-A East Coast hotties, shirtless, suntanned and sweaty, their rippling muscles flexing and firing each time they connected with the ball or the court.

She fixates on one guy in particular, Reese, and decides that she has a crush on him. The first chance to choose what MeHaley will do happens on page 16. Up to that point you've been introduced to her family, her new house (which has a window view into Reese's bedroom *gross*), and a convertible full of popular girls, lead by Coco, who has a past with Reese. The cards are lined up and then another voice, ala Gossip Girl, interjects and sums up MeHaley's position in bold:

Boy, does Haley ever have a lot to learn. She's about to be thrown to the wolves of the New Jersey public school system. And if she's not careful, they're going to tear her apart.

It goes on to say that MeHaley is cute for thinking that Reese would be taking the bus with her to school and that she better watch out for Coco. Then you have to make the first move. Either you call your dad's cell phone and demand that he drive you to school or you take the bus alone:

It's a brand-new year at Hillsdale High, and for Haley Miller, it's a brand-new life. Her grades, her friends, her love life, her future--it's all up to you. So get ready to change the fate of the girl with the most potential at Hillsdale High.

Okay, so although I don't think that there are any choices that will make me die a horrible death (which pretty much happened all the time in Choose Your Own Adventure books), I still think this one over. But I'll decide to phone my dad and get him to drop me off at school. So I'm on to page 27 *flipflipflip*.

When I get to page 27, MeHaley is already at school, we just assume that she's gotten a ride from her dad. MeHaley is assigned to Annie, who volunteered to show MH around on her first day. Their first class together is Spanish and MeHaley is pretty adept at speaking the language, well except when we're caught off guard by the smouldering hottie standing in the class doorway, the infamous Sebastian, Spanish exchange student.
The next opportunity to choose what you'll do comes quicker than before. You now have to decide if you'll join Coco and the popular girls to help boost their marks in Spanish for a group project or if you'll stick by Annie and her group, which includes sultry Sebastian.
This is a hard one. I think I'll go for the guy and keep my grade average up, missing the opportunity to get in with the popular girls. So I go to page 56 *flipflipflip*.

Okaay. So now Sebastian is hot and heavy with MeHaley and my next choice has come up (after three pages), which suggests that Sebastian's advances are lecherous even though the story never says what MeHaley thinks of Sebastian. I have this feeling, reading, that one author wrote a story and another came in and created a Choose Your Own out of it. It doesn't feel like it was originally intended. Anyway, I'm going to go to dinner at Sebastian's house with my original group, for some "authentic" Spanish food (because the guy never ate at McDonald's in Spain, he only eats "traditional" food). Anyway, I'm going for dinner on page 92 *flipflipflip*.

Hey I'm almost done the book! Ha! Okay I have to type this out:

"David!" Sebastian said when they arrived in the kitchen. He temporarily left the paella and lunged toward Dave.
"Um, hi," Dave said, jumping out of Sebastian's way. If Dave got jittery just standing next to a girl, there was no way he could handle a European man kiss.
"But this is how we greet our friends in my country," said Sebastian, scooping Dave up in an embrace and lifting him several inches off the ground.

Sebastian also has a vineyard. He's offering wine to everyone and I have to choose if I'll partake or not. And I do so I continue reading on. Annie gets wasted and has to sleep over at MeHaley's house to avoid going home and getting caught. I'm going to skip a few parts but I prefer Sebastian to Reese and Annie is getting on my nerves but apparently wherever Sebastian goes, Annie goes, so I'm stuck with her. *flipflip* Coco has adopted me and wants to pull a Pygmalion for the Hallowe'en party. *flip* I don't care about Whitney's personal problems and skip to getting ready for the party.

Huh, Coco humiliates me at the party when I show up as a pile of leaves, but Reese stands up for me even though he doesn't make a move. Although now there is Spencer, the charming preppy guy who has an interest in me. I think I'll be going to his illegal gambling party. And apparently I find the seedy underbelly of Hillsdale, where we smoke pot and gamble. I have to admit that I choose to go upstairs with Spencer rather than go looking for boy-next-door Reese.
Hahahaha! And it seals my fate! Spencer jumps on me and we're interrupted by the cops! Spencer is sent to boarding school in Geneva and I am stuck at Hillsdale for the rest of my life as "the random stoner girl Spencer was having sex with when he got busted by the cops, whose mom turned everyone in." Go back to Page 1 and try again!
Dude, I made some bad choices! Is it worse than dying a horrible death? I died a horrible social death.

Who can do better than me? Who wants a copy of this book to read, choose your actions, and blog about it? Let's see if someone else can avoid social death at Hillsdale.

Mandy

A Little *Sarah Dessen* Love

I love books by Sarah Dessen. I find her so addictive; you have to sit and sit and finish her books all at once. Here's a little Dessen inventory, personal to me:

The first book by her I read was Keeping the Moon. At the time I thought it was just fine and didn't read anything by her for a while afterwards. I thought the story was a little hard to feel for. I wasn't connecting with the main character, it felt a little distant. But, I loved the setting--beach town, summer, fish-out-of-water teen girl working at a diner. It's all about who she meets, who she falls in love with, how her summer changes her from this weight-obsessed daughter of an aerobics guru to something a little more like herself.

Then I read Dreamland and had about the same reaction to it. It was just fine. A girl gets involved with a bad boy and he turns out to be a really terrible person. Not this bad boy with a heart of gold kind of guy, a vulnerable little boy with a prickly exterior, but a real jerk of a person who gets her into drugs and smacks her around sometimes. Oh, actually, I read Just Listen before I read Dreamland. Here's what I had to say about Dreamland last August:
I definately didn't enjoy this one as much as I enjoyed "Just Listen". When Rogerson starts abusing Caitlin I was surprised, not because I was so into Rogerson being a genuinely good guy, but because it didn't seem to fit. I don't think the turn into a survivor's story was written well enough to take me along with it. I also think this turn was taken too late into the story and then dealt with too quickly. I guess I have a pacing and tonal problem with the book. I will still read more Sarah Dessen.

And I did. As I realize now, I read Just Listen after Keeping the Moon and completely fell in love with Owen. He was this huge guy just out of anger-management counselling with a crazy taste in music but a sweetness to him that won me over. His leading lady was a former popular girl who was shunned out of her circle I think because there were rumors that she slept her best friend's boyfriend. The two spend their days together and Owen shows Annabel how to speak up for herself, especially about her sister who's bulemic and her mother who's a weird-o child-model fanatic, carting Annabel around for years to photo shoots she hated. Just Listen is my favourite Dessen title to date.

And Along for the Ride, I think , was a lighter story. It revisits the setting of Keeping the Moon and some of the secondary characters, but I can't remember the details exactly. The same diner is featured although this book takes place at a different time. But again, it's the story of this girl, a fish-out-of-water, visiting her dad, his new wife and her new step-sister for the summer. She has no idea how to make friends or how to even be around people. She thinks she's cold like her mother, but she realizes that she has an inner feel-good girl and hunky Eli is happy to let that girl loose.

I have to say that I still don't love the cover for the book. The characters on the front look like grown-ups, especially the guy. The bike is all wrong; Eli is a talented bike trick/stunt guy like a skateboarder but with bikes *sorry, I have no idea about the language* so his bike does not look like this. The cover just looks kind of uncomfortable and a little plastic. I looked around to see if they've released cover art for the paperback edition and they haven't yet, but I DID find this amazing Livejournal dedicated to Sarah Dessen. This person has created a fantasy movie poster for Along for the Ride. And it's really cute.

Oh, and Lock and Key was really good too. It was about a girl and her mother living in poverty until her mom just stops coming home. Ruby, underage, tries to hide it for as long as she can but Social Services takes her to live with her sister, who she hasn't seen in 10 years. Her sister left her and her mother, went to school and now lives the ideal life; she's educated, lives in a beautiful home, she's married to a great man. Ruby doesn't know how she'll fit in because she's never lived like this. The book, really, is about Ruby getting to know her sister and her mother and her past a lot better. There is some love-interest in the book but the message is more like "Ruby has a lot of stuff going on in her life and can't really get her head around liking a boy, too". Nate is more like the nice guy next door, maybe potentially in the future a boyfriend.

What I love about Sarah's books is the transformation that happens to her characters. She often starts her books by pulling a girl out of her habitual way of life and plunking her down somewhere not quite her. Add some wacky cast and the result is an exploration into the way people around us change us, make us see things in different ways. Plus, when she's on, Sarah knows how to really write a leading guy.

Mandy

Review and final reading of *The Hunger Games*

So now that everyone and their monkey has read The Hunger Games, I've decided to read and review it. And it is totally great. Actually, I haven't finished about 100 pages of it because I wanted to blog my way through it as I finish the book, for everyone who HAS read it and knows that it's good.
If you haven't read it, jump on that train. It is worth all the hype you've heard about it.
When I started reading, I had read no reviews of the book. I knew that people deeply loved it and that there was a question of loyalties about two boys Katniss had in her life, Team Peeta or Team Gale, and that is all. I really loved not knowing anything about the content of the book and just diving in. The Hunger Games had all of these elements that surprised me and set it apart from, say, just reading The Running Man by Richard Bachman.
So for anyone who hasn't read The Hunger Games, make it the next thing you do, and this is all I'm giving you:

Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When Kat's sister is chosen by lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place.

*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*SPOILERS*

Anyone who HAS read THG may continue on to the palace of spoilers. With a nod to Bookshelves of Doom, here is me reading the last 100 pages or so of The Hunger Games:

Chapter 21 Page 278: Peeta has just been drugged by Katniss and I am glad because I was annoyed that he wanted to drag himself behind her if she went to the mock feast/bloodbath. What good would that have done? I completely get the message he's trying to give the Capitol, but this martyr dragging issue was a little over the top for him. Katniss is awesome and can totally take care of herself. He'd probably get her killed. So, drugged you are, Peeta.

280: "I wonder what he makes of all this kissing". Yeah, poor Gale. I don't feel as connected to his character as he was only really introduced at the beginning and I haven't heard from him again. I wonder if he's behind the little packages Katniss has been getting.

285: I really don't get when the bad guy taunts the good guy whenever they have the upper hand. When you cheese people off they get angry and stronger and more determined. Stupid Clove.

287: Yeah, see? Rock bashing your head? Boasting about the people you've killed = someone willing to knock you down for your pride.

289: "I jam the needle into Peeta's arm..." *barf*
Green-an-silver moth? Hmm...

292: I love that this square of plastic that Katniss grabbed at the very beginning is a great resource throughout the book! It keeps coming in handy, this time as a canopy in the cave roof. I'm wary about Peeta. Is Suzanne Collins going to make him turn on Katniss? Or is he sincere?

295-298: kissy kissy

299: I still don't completely get the notion of sponsors in the games. What is their role? Haymitch gets to send provisions to Katniss and Peeta, but why then wouldn't he do it all the time? And why would he be so concerned about their "performance"? It's grim also because Haymitch won his own games so he knows how barbaric and horrible the whole thing is.

300: I totally know something is going to happen with the mockingjays. They're going to become useful to Katniss by the end. There has been a lot of foreshadowing.

306: Yeah, I just went through 6 pages of mushy "I've always noticed you" business and finally Katniss realizes how grim the whole thing is. If she wins, she'll be a mentor to kids entering the games from now on, perpetuating the cycle as if the whole thing is all right. And Haymitch must have killed the other kid from his District when he won in the past. And had to watch every year as he sent out two kids to die at each Game.

315: I don't get that Peeta is kind of wimpy now. I mean, the guy was harsh when he went back into the forest and killed a girl when he was running with the Career group. He was harsher and more of a survivor. Now he can't even tell that he's being loud in the forest and he seems totally reliant on Katniss.

318: NO!! Foxface ate the cheese! Realize it and look out for her, Katniss!

318, a few lines down: Foxface just died by eating the wrong berries? It doesn't seem like a good enough death for her since she was so resourceful. Also, it makes it too easy since Kat and Peeta would have had to kill her to win. The moral battle would have been more interesting. This is a little too easy. PS Katniss, told ya about the cheese.

320: Okay, okay, I guess Foxface would not have questioned berries that she thought Peeta and Kat were going to eat themselves.

"And she's very clever, Peeta. Well, she was. Unil you outfoxed her". That's a little too hammy for me. And a little too soon to be chuckling over her death, if at all?

333: The dead tributes have been turned into wolves?

341: That's pretty dark, Cato taking so long to die. I wonder what the Capitol is going to do about two tributes winning and the audience cheering for their romance? It goes against what the Capitol stands for. I bet Kat and Peeta will be forced to kill each other.

342: Yeah, I knew it. Fight to the death.

345: The Capitol didn't call their bluff. I'm surprised. Maybe they didn't think Kat and Peeta would kill themselves. Even after everything that's happened.

354: Yeah, now Kat has to return to the "real" world and realize she can never live there again after being part of the games. I'm really eager to see how it ends. Although, knowing that there's a sequel, I guess it won't really be the endong of the story.

357: I knew the Capitol weren't going to be okay with their romance and the way the audience responded to it. I guess that was pretty obvious throughout the book.

371: My stomach is in knots. I don't know what's going to happen and the tone is so chilly.

373: Oh my gosh, Peeta, grow the hell up. You guys just survived a horrific nightmare scenario and you're angry that Kat might not have been completely in love with you? Give her time and space, man.

374: Umm, as an ending to the first book in a trilogy it's okay, but I would have been so angry if it was a stand-alone novel. Generally, I didn't love that the book had a focus on Peeta's interest in Kat above the games themselves. I get that it was a rebellious provocation to show this romance and it worked in their favour. But I thought it was lame of Peeta to focus on his feelings for Kat above the fact that 22 kids died around them for weeks, some at their own hands. Kat certainly got this. I was hoping for something more from both of them in terms of how they might go against the Capitol. Maybe in the second book?

I don't know if I'm either Team Peeta or Team Gale. I'll have to keep reading. Can I be Team Rue or Team Foxface?

Mandy