Fairies Are So Hot Right Now

Now I've seen children and YA books with and about fairies for the last several years (and of course there's the centuries old popularity of fairy tales), but recently they really seem to have taken off.  All of my girls between the ages of 6 and 10 are into the Never Fairies and Rainbow Fairies series and some authors are trying to increase the range by writing and illustrating fairy books that are more gender neutral or geared towards boys.  So here's a post on fairy books, part Book List and part Review.

First for the younger kids there's the picture books by Bobbie Hinman. The most popular of these is the Fart Fairy. Which I'm not surprised appeals to kids, but personally I like to steer them away from bathroom humor.  There's also The Belly Button Fairy, The Knot Fairy, and The Sock Fairy.  Bobbie Hinman was an elementary school teacher, so she knows how to appeal to young kids.  All four stories are written in simple rhyme and have adorable and fun illustrations.  They're meant to appeal to boys and girls and children from a broad age range.  You can read them allowed to a 3 year old, with an emergent reader, or have a 7 or 8 year old read it to themselves.   If you buy them new they come with a read along CD, which can be great.

The Rainbow Fairies is a series about seven sister fairies who bring color to Fairyland, and the two human girls, Rachel and Kristy, who help the fairy sisters when they show up in our world.  These books fall into the easier reading range of chapter books.  The chapters are short, there are a fair amount of illustrations, and the stories not to long.  However, there aren't so many pictures that 3rd graders would scorn the books as "babyish".  I'd recommend this series for early Fluent readers (often 2nd and 3rd graders), it's the most popular series among my own students at the moment.  These books have been out for two or so years so the first part of the series should be available in libraries and used book stores.

The Never Fairies of Pixie Hollow is a Disney franchise about Tinkerbell and her pixie friends.  There's movies and books and games and the general Disney characteristic of trying to get you to buy more, but the actual book series Tales from Pixie Hollow is pretty good.  They have good messages about friendship, working together, gaining new skills, the growing and changing of  a person, and other wonderful things.  The fairies all have different skills and professions, Tinkerbell's a blacksmith, and the illustrations portray them as different races (though they all have the same general body shape).  I'd recommend the series for fluent readers (it's a bit harder then the Rainbow Fairies series) so about the 3rd grade level.  However, I know a lot of older girls who also enjoy this series so they're good for older kids for an easier read or those who might have a lower reading level but don't want to look "babyish". Also, since the first books in the series came out a couple years ago they're easy to find at used books shops or in the library!

I've already reviewed Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy which is Young Adult and a light read with an interesting world, great female friendships, queer characters, and a good message about working for what you want.  However, I was a little disappointed that the protagonist, Charlie, didn't seem to learn that lesson as well as her friends did.

And of course there are the traditional fairy tales and their more modern retellings. I'm sure many people remember Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.  It was published in 1998 and has won a Trophy Newbery and had a movie remake starring Anne Hathaway.  Levine has also retold the story of Snow White in Fairest and written her own fairy tales in The Tale of Two Castles and The Two Princesses of Bamarre.  I've only read Ella Enchanted and Fairest, and I preferred Ella Enchanted, but all the books are YA in regards to reading level and appropriate story wise for younger children. 

Book List - Banned Books Week

So this past week (Sept. 24 - Oct. 4) has been Banned Books Week.  As the site will tell you Banned Books Week, organized by the American Library Association, started in the 1980s when the rise of neo-con, religious values lead interest groups to protest books with queer, sex-positive,  non-Christian, "witch craft", "racist", and overtly political messages.  I wrote witch craft and racist with quotation marks because these reasons have been used to ban Harry Potter and The Adventures of Huck Finn, which is especially troubling since Huck Finn might use the n-word but it's actually pointing out the wrongness of racism. The habit of banning books for racism when really they are criticizing racism in society has happened again in 2010.

This month's book list is the Top Ten Banned Books of 2010.  The majority of these are YA novels, the most banned book is for young children, and one book is a non-fiction book aimed at adults (though appropriate for YA audiences as well).

The Top 10 Banned Books of 2010

1. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson is an adorable book about two male penguins raising a baby penguin in a zoo.  I recommended this book for Pre-K/K aged children in my Book List - Gay Pride Month post in June.  It was banned for homosexuality, religious view point, and having material unsuitable to age group.
2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a YA book and story of a 14 year old Spokane Indian boy who transfers from his reservation school to a rich, white school. It's semi-autobiographical and deals with family death, reservation life, and questions of community and identity.  This book was banned for racism, offensive language, religious view points, sex education, violence, being sexually explicit, and for being unsuited to age group.
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a classic sci-fi book suitable for YA and Adult readers.  It portrays a distopian world similar to that of The Giver where there is no violence, crime, poverty or individuality.  It's a critique of society and a warning to us on par with 1984 and Fahrenheit 451.  It was banned for insensitivity, offensive language, racism, and for being sexually explicit. 
4. Crank by Ellen Hopkins is a semi-autobiographical YA novel similar to Go Ask Alice.  It deals with teenage drug addiction and rape in a relatively realistic and completely unglamorized manner.  It was banned for drugs, offensive language, racism, and for being sexually explicit. 
5. The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins is the YA story of Panem, a distopian future US where children fight gladiatorial games, and Katniss Everdeen the girl who volunteered to take her sister's place and challenged the government by refusing to play by their rules.  I reviewed it here.   The series has been banned for violence, being sexually explicit, and unsuitable for the age group.
6. Lush by Natasha Friend is a YA book where a 13 year old girl struggles to deal with her father's alcoholism and pressure from her mother and grandmother to hide it from everyone. It also deals with more typical teenage problems like crushes and puberty,  It was banned for drugs, being sexually explicit, offensive language, and unsuitable for the age group.
7. What My Mother Doesn't Know by Sonya Sones is a YA book about a typical teenage girl dealing with relationships, crushes, issues with Mom, and understanding the difference between love and lust.  It's poetic and emotionally intense and banned for sexism, being sexually explicit, and unsuitable to age group. 
8. Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich is a famous non-fiction book about the author trying to survive on minimum wage in different parts of the country.  It examines the unfairness in the US, especially for women, and explains how important Welfare and a living wage really are.  It's been banned for drugs, inaccuracy, offensive language, political viewpoints, and religious viewpoints.
9. Revolutionary Voices by Amy Sonnie is a YA anthology of stories by queer and young writers. It's autobiographical for the various writes and wonderfully edited by 22 year old Amy Sonnie.  It's been banned for homosexuality, being being sexually explicit. 
10. Twilight (Series) by Stephanie Meyer is the incredibly popular YA series about the age old tale of love between a human girl and a 100 year old sparkling vampire.  While I have objections to the series (like the quality of writing) they're a bit different then the reasons it was banned; violence, being sexually explicit, religious viewpoint, and unsuited to audience. 

Now I have two reasons I have problems with the list.  The lesser one being some of the books banned for being sexually explicit don't portray anything more intense then kissing and cuddling, the ones being banned for racism are attacking and exposing racism, and the idea that people ban books for positively portraying queer characters is offensive.  

But my main objection to this list is that it exists at all.  Books should not be banned, it's an issue of free speech and access to opposing speech and stories.  The idea of institutionally stifling or hiding voices that portray something different or something that some people find objectionable is repugnant.  This is especially true when these voices portray the experiences of real people or are something that many people face or deal with.  Teenagers go through puberty and the majority of them experience desire.  Addiction and rape happen (to adults, teenagers, and even children).  Not everyone is straight and queer people are victimized and bullied.  People of Color experience racism.  To ban books at all is wrong, but to ban them for showing the world as it really is, instead of how white, conservative Christians want it to be, is inexcusable. 

To See Where Books Are Being Banned Near You

Gay Characters in Young Adult Fiction

Over the last couple of weeks the Literary/Gay blogosphere has focused on the inclusion (or lack there of) of LGBT characters and protagonists in young adult fiction.  It began when two authors, Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, came out about how an agent for a major publishing house told them to remove the gay point of view/relationship from their sci-fi novel.

The Post That Started It All - The two authors wrote about an experience they had while trying to publish their joint post-apocalyptic novel Stranger.  There are five POV characters, one, Yuki, is gay and his relationship is important to the plot of the story.  One, unnamed agent from an unnamed, but major, publisher told them to remove the gay POV (along with at least one other POV) and references to his relationship.  The authors refused and the agent suggested that he could be revealed as gay in a sequel.  The authors refused and some time later decided to write about their experience and use it as a jumping off point to talk about queer inclusion in YA fiction.

Several days later an agent from the publishing house, but not the one Brown and Smith were in talks with, presented the publisher's side of the story. She called Brown and Smith liars, but didn't contradict most of what they were saying, and provided justifications for why Yuki should not be a POV character and his relationship, with another boy, be removed from the novel.

Other authors, and people in publishing, speak up.  Some relate their similar experiences with "straightwashing" while others call YA the most gay-inclusive area in fiction and claim nothing so homophobic could happen in YA fiction, or publishing in general. Two bloggers address the the various points people raise and provide links to a bunch of other posts. General Summary/Points and More Points.
Meanwhile Malinda Lo addresses the claim that YA in queer inclusive by breaking down the stats and percentages on the publishing of LGBT novels in the last 50 years.  She finds there has been a general increase in characters, but that less then 1% of published YA novels have a LGBT protagonist or supporting character. Of this 1%, half are male gay characters, and a quarter are lesbians.  Transgender people makes up only 4% of all LGBT characters in YA novels.

AfterElton, a gay media site, weights in on the topic, as does writer Sarah Rees Brennan.

Now, in case it needs saying, I'm all for the inclusion of queer characters in fiction, especially YA fiction.  I think all forms of media needs to get better at portraying LGBT(QIA) folk.  Several months ago I did of Book List with children and YA books with queer characters/protagonists, which you can find here.  I agree with this post on Where Change Must Come From. It isn't enough to say readers need to buy more LGBT books, or authors need to write more, or publishers need to publish more.  All these things must happen together.  And, in my humble opinion, publishers are the ones with the most power to enact change.  I can only buy LGBT books if they publish them, and my favorite authors (some of whom self publish) whose books I buy as soon as they come out, write books with queer characters.  And I wish there are more queer books, especially ones with bi-sexual and trans characters, I want these stories, for myself, and all the children out there.  And as this event, and others before it, shows, some authors are writing books with LGBT characters, and they're being told to remove the story lines (for marketing reasons).  Until this stops, and publishers have more then 1% of their total books include prominent LGBT characters (I refuse to believe only 1% of all YA books submitted have prominent queer characters and are of quality) then the vehicle for significant change rests with the publishing houses.

Book Review - The Demon's Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Demon's Surrender is the last book of the Demon's Lexicon Trilogy (reviewed here).  The trilogy follows the adventures of Nick and Alan Ryves, siblings Jamie and Mae, and Sin (Cynthia Davies) as they struggle with and against magicians and demons.  Each book has a different narrator, the first is Nick, second is Mea, and Sin is the narrator in The Demon's Surrender.

The whole trilogy emotionally focuses on family, especially siblings as each main character has at least on parent who has died or they're emotionally distant from.  This continues with Sin who is the main caregiver for her two younger siblings and partway through the book has to chose between staying with her sister or her place in the Goblin Market, of which she is the main demon dancer and presumed heir.

The content and reading level is still Young Adult, but The Demon's Surrender is a little bit more sexual then the previous books.  A lot of this comes from Sin having to use her beauty to attract clients.  Some also comes from Sin being mixed race and therefore having to deal with more street harassment and objectification then Mea.  I really liked how Rees Brennan addressed this in the book.  It's, realistically, a daily part of Sin's life, but her race is by no means her defining characteristic. 

This book also most closely addressed Alan's limp with Sin being more bothered by it (because of her career as a demon dancer) then Nick or Mea is.  It also is better about showing Alan's own relationship with his disability since he and Sin have several conversations about it.   

There are also two scenes of graphic violence that could easily be disturbing to readers.  Both involve torture and one includes self mutilation.  I think Rees Brennan handled them well, but they were a bit more intense then other scenes with violence in The Demon's Surrender or other books in the trilogy.   There is a bit more violence in the book over all as it has the final battle between the main characters and magicians, and Sin, like Alan and Nick, has basically grown up fighting.

Anyway, I completely loved this series and think it's a great book to introduce boys and girls to fantasy.  Also Sarah Rees Brennan has written several short stories in the Demon's Lexicon universe.  You can find them here.

Book Review - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is the first book in the Mockingjay Trilogy which follows the story of Katniss Everdeen as she attempts to survive in the post-apocalyptic world of Panem.  Panem is the remains of a war torn North America and is separated into twelve districts and the Capitol.  It experiences class and wealth divides with the Captiol having a extreme wealth and plenty of resources, while many of the districts surviving on little.  Approximately 100 years ago a war was fought over this set up.  This civil war resulted in District 13 being "obliterated" and the yearly gladitorial Hunger Games where two children of each district fight.  Katniss volunteers to take the place of her younger sister and immediately becomes a figure of interest in the year's Hunger Games.  Her attempts to survive and save the lives of other children in the games leads to political instability which becomes the major plot points of Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

I devoured the Mockingjay series in about a week.  The writing is good, most of the characters are well developed, and the themes, sometimes shown only by small details, are deep and relevent.  They are also rather adult.  This book is considered Young Adult, but I think part of that classification comes from the ages of the characters.  Katniss starts the series as the age of 16. 

However the book portays the brutal death of multiple children and teenagers.  It also deals with PTSD, alcohol and drug addiction and contains multiple cultural critiques such as classism, racism, and an entertainment obsessed culture.  It's incredibly deep. 

While I think teenagers can read and appreciate The Hunger Games and the rest of the trilogy I think they have to be emotionally mature to do so.  A twelve-year-old might understand the words and follow the story, but this series is more on the sixteen-year-old end of the YA classification. 

This is certainly a series that leads to discussion.  It's great for a book club or for parents and teens to read and discuss together.  This is also a way for younger teens to read the book and gain understanding of the more mature themes in the book.

As a YA book The Hunger Games is for Self Extending Readers and ones at the higher end of the level.  Readers definately need some background knowledge on Roman history and the geography of North America to understand the layout of Panem and the significance of gladitorial games.  To catch the classism and racism that is portrayed readers obviously need to have some understanding of these issues and how the manifest in small ways.  Even then some readers are likely to miss that the poorer discricts and people are more likely to have darker coloring as this is something that Collins portrays through character descriptions, but doesn't explain the significance of.

As a side note there is a movie of The Hunger Games and I imagine it will be very popular.  It will still be some time before the film comes out.  I'm always in favor of reading a book before seeing the film and I think it's good to see how the different mediums seek to tell the same story. The Hunger Games will be especially interesting in this regard as Suzanne Collins is helping to write the script.

Book Review - How to Ditch Your Fairy by Justine Larbalestier

How to Ditch Your Fairy is set in the future city of New Avalon, Australia where many people have invisible fairies who give them certain skills, types of luck, or in some cases a great number of difficulties.  This is the story of Charlie, a sports lover, who is unlucky enough to have a parking fairy.  This means if Charlie's in a car it'll find the best parking spot no matter how busy the place.  She's always being called upon to help her mom, dad, and their friends or being kidnapped by fellow student Danders so he can do his shady business without worrying about finding a good parking spot for a quick get away.  

Charlie absolutely hates her fairy and spends most of the book trying to get rid of it so she can, hopefully, get a cool fairy, like her friend Rochelle's clothes shopping fairy.  Over the course of  the story Charlie makes a new friend in Fiorenze, deals with the ups and downs of first love, learns a bit about fairness, and spends as much time as she can becoming the best athlete possible.  

How to Ditch Your Fairy is written in first person, rather like it's Charlies diary.  I'm not the biggest fan of first person, but I got over my dislike of the tense by the end of the first chapter.   Charlie's a very focused character, her main concerns are sports and how her parking fairy is ruining her chances of being a great athlete.  This makes it very easy for the reader to enter into Charlie's mind and care about the same things she does.  However, it also means Charlie doesn't spend much time questioning the way things are and she can be throughtless and even a little cruel at times because Charlie doesn't spend much time trying to see things from other people's points of view.  This means she doesn't question her dislike of Fiorenze until she's forced to spend time with her and circumstances put Charlie in Fiorenze's shoes.  Likewise, she has a crush on Steffi, a new student, but doesn't try to get to know about him before he moved to New Avalon until he calls her on her self-centeredness.  However, by the end of the book Charlie's gotten a lot better at thinking about other people and what's important to them.

One thing I loved about this book is how Larbalestier shows the relationship between Charlie and Fiorenze.  Fiorenze is cursed with an All the Boys Like You Fairy and it makes Charlie and a bunch of other girls really resent Fiorenze and treat her horribly.  Over the course of the story Charlie realizes how unfair this all is and becomes good friends with Fiorenze.  I think this is very applicable to real life.  I see so many girls and women treat each other horribly because of men. So often you see stories, in songs, TV, movies, and books where the guy the female protagonist is into likes another girl and this means that other girl is a horrible person.  I hate these types of stories and what it teaches young girls, so I was so excited that How to Ditch Your Fairy shows the exact opposite.

One area I was disappointed in was Charlie's relationship with fairies.  The set up of the story seems like Charlie should be learning about how fairies can give people unfair advantages and that it's better to succeed on your own talents and hard work.  Other characters learn this lesson, they're worried about the consequences of what they're fairies get them.  However, even at the end of the book Charlie still wants a cool fairy and is really excited about the one she ultimately gets, even though it dimishes her personal hard work and success. 

So if you want to give your child or student a book about keeping an open mind, the importance of family and friendship, or how we should be considerate of other people and their wants and needs this is a great book.  If you want to teach a lesson about hard work and perseverance, be prepared to talk about Charlie's fairy obsession and her societies reliance on fairies to make things easier.

This book identifies as Young Adult and content wise it is better suited for 12 and older children.  At times it's necessary to think critically about Charlie's opinions and actions and most elementary school children will have a harder time considering this and making judgements.  Reading skills wise, this book can be used to help children work on learning the meaning of words through context.  It is set in an imaginary city in the future so the characters use slang that doesn't exist in the real world.  All of the words are included in a glossary in the back of the book, so even if kids can't guess an accurate meaning they don't have to spend much time looking for the answer.

The books Reading Level, and even the content of crushes, friendships, and getting on a sports team, can be managed by somewhat younger children.  Some of my forth graders are reading this book and enjoying it.  As long as people are Self Extending Readers they can manage the words and content of this book. (More on Reading Levels) I think How to Ditch Your Fairy is a book that sparks conversation so I definately would recommend it for a book club.

Book Review - The Demon's Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Demon's Lexicon is the first book of an urban fantasy trilogy that's set in England and follows brothers Nick and Alan Ryves, siblings Jamie and Mae, and Sin.

Magicians exist in the world of The Demon's Lexicon Trilogy, they blend in with regular humans and most people don't know of their existence.  Magicians have a small amount of power, but they crave more.  Magicians call up demons (beings of air from another world) and give them humans to possess in exchange for greater magical powers. 
Standing against the magicians is the Goblin Market, a loosely allied group of people who work to protect humans from magicians and demons, for a price.

Nick, Alan, and their mother Olivia are on the run from magicians, they have been for as long as Nick can remember.  Olivia used to be a member of the powerful Obsidian Circle, a group of magicians led by Black Arthur.  They drove her mad and she ran away, but Olivia stole something first, and since then all the magician circles have been hunting Nick and his family.  The Demon's Lexicon begins with a magician's attack on the Reeves family; during the clean-up Nick and Alan encounter Jamie and Mea, classmates of Nick, who've heard the Ryve's were the people to go to if you had a problem with demons.

We quickly learn that Jamie has been having nightly visits from a demon, and if you let them in they mark you.  One mark to form a doorway and the demons can follow you always, the second mark to allow demons to enter your dreams and means someone has to die, the third mark is the demon's eye and means you'll be possessed.  Jamie has been marked three times and his death seems certain, until Alan is marked by the same demon.

What follows is an adventure across England with visits to a Goblin Market and a dance to call up demons. Along the way family secrets are revealed.  Nick, Alan, Jamie, and Mea learn the importance of truth and lies, that magicians really can be anyone, and any human can house a demon under the right circumstances.

Nick is the narrator of the first book.  He's an incredibly focused character who only cares about himself and Alan, and the content of the book reflects this.  The story takes a very narrow view with other characters and information only being mentioned when they directly affect Nick and Alan.  This also means that the other characters are portrayed only through what Nick observes them do, he doesn't spend much time thinking about their emotions or motivations.

This changes in The Demon's Covenant where Mea's the narrator.  She's posssibly the most empathetic of the characters and focuses a lot of their emotions and motivations, though no one's all knowing.  Both books focus a great deal on secrets and last minute reveals so the narrators are seem carefully chosen as the people with some of the least information, or who are incapable or uninterested in finding out the secrets until they come to a head.

The Content and Reading Level of this trilogy is young adult.  It deals with romance, making out without much romance, sexual orientation and homophobia, racism, death of friends and family members, and several of the protagonists have to commit murder at different points (some deal with more PTSD like reactions to this than others).   While most 12 year olds can handle the reading level of this series not all of them will have the maturity to understand or appreciate the content.

While The Demon's Lexicon passes the Bechdel Test, even through the female conversations are of the blink and you'll miss them sort, The Demon's Covenant blows it away.  This book further developes the previous minor characters of demon dancer Sin, and Goblin Market leader Merris Cromwell.  It also introduces the reader to Mae's workaholic mother Annabel, and several important female magicians.  This isn't too surprising as Sarah Rees Brennan is an ardent feminist and has written numerous posts about female characters in her blog. (See here, here, and here , and yes here too) The last book in the trilogy casts Sin as the narrator so I imagine it too will have awesome representation of the ladies.

Rees Brennan manages a wonderful blend of heartbreak and humor.  Most of the main characters are sarcastic and call upon a gallows sense of humor to get them through dangerous situations.  Jamie is certainly the standout character though, his response to terror is the make hilarious comments that range from pithy to rambling.  In response to danger Nick grabs his sword, Alan makes plans, Sin does some combination of the two, Mea raises her chin bravely, and Jamie spends a couple minutes cowering and making quips before stepping up and doing what's necessary.  In my opinion this makes him the most relatable character.

The last book in the trilogy, The Demon's Surrender comes out this spring.  I can't wait for it's release.  This is one of the few books I have no problem paying hard cover prices for, even on my small child care provider's salary.