Posts Tagged: YA Lit

Rumpus Exclusive: “Kristy’s Invisible Hand and Das Baby-Sitters Club Kapital”

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The babysitters inspired me, and Kristy’s entrepreneurial vision seemed plain yet elegant; easy-to-follow, too.

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Rumpus Exclusive: Cover Reveal for Foreshadow

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An exclusive first look at the cover of the forthcoming collection, FORESHADOW!

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20 Years of Latino Children’s Literature

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The American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Awards just had its 20th anniversary this past weekend, celebrating two decades of outstanding Latino writers and illustrators who create books for Latino children and teens. The Monitor reported on the event, which featured dozens of prominent Latino authors and illustrators whose work has showcased and celebrated Latino culture, heritage, […]

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The Faces of The Face on the Milk Carton

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The YA novel The Face on The Milk Carton has marked a thrilling yet disturbing rite of passage for many young readers over the past 25 years, iconic right down to its simple, haunting cover—which many of those readers could easily conjure from memory. Mallory Ortberg, literary comedian and maestro of The Toast, was one […]

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Why Some Voices Are “Stronger” than Others in YA Lit

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At the School Library Journal, Kelly Jensen examines gender norms and double standards in YA fiction, questioning which female protagonists we refer to as “strong”—and why do not refer to male voices as such: When women take risks in their writing, when they choose to write female-driven narratives with take-no-bull girls who may not care at […]

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Our Parents Get Their Own Genre

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Baby Boomer-centric literature is the next big thing, declares The Telegraph. Just as YA literature deals with one of life’s major milestones, so does boomer literature as older adults come to terms with aging, retirement, and the final chapter of their lives. Nevertheless, like any good trend, not everyone agrees as to what Boomer Lit actually […]

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Does Age Matter?

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With the publication of several new young adult novels by teen authors, Julia Eccleshare wonders if age impacts a novelist’s ability to connect with younger readers. In addition, Eccleshare returns to the origins of the young adult genre, and investigates the influence of popular works by John Green, Judy Blume, and Beverly Cleary.

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Competitive Writing

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If you win, then you talk to the other winners, congratulating and praising them. If you lose, then you read through your submission, noting mistakes that weren’t there five minutes before, wondering where you went wrong,” she adds. “You tell yourself, ‘It doesn’t really matter. I’ll survive.’ But a squeaky voice in the back of […]

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Honest About the Body

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At the Guardian, Sarah Hughes profiles young adult author Louise O’Neill, whose novels Only Ever Yours and Asking For It have received acclaim for embracing “dark themes” surrounding body image, sex, and social media: When I wrote Only Ever Yours it was at a time when I was so sick and tired of feeling shame around my body and so weary of fighting […]

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The Rumpus Interview with Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

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Producer Jeff Sommerville, director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, and the cast of Me and Earl and the Dying Girl discuss their movie that went to Sundance and beyond.

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Would You Rather Babysit Cathy Ames or Christine Hargensen?

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What do Yukio Mishima, Tana French, Shirley Jackson, and John Steinbeck have in common? They’re the masterminds behind a couple of the most evil fictional youngsters of all time, according to a list compiled by British bookstore Abebooks. The list shuns contemporary malevolent characters in favor of the “utterly evil” children of yore, reasoning: “While […]

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The Rumpus Interview with Matthew Baker

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“Master fictioneer” Matthew Baker talks about his new middle grade novel, If You Find This, artists as tricksters, his favorite comic strips, and why children are still capable of believing in impossible things.

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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Jack Gantos

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Jack Gantos discusses the sense of “delusional invincibility” he had in 1970s New York that led him to prison—and then on to a career as an award-winning children’s book author.

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The Rumpus Interview with Daniel José Older

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Author Daniel José Older talks about his new novel, Shadowshaper, noir influence in urban fantasy, gentrification, white privilege and the publishing industry, and why we need diverse books, now more than ever.

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The Fault in Our Sentences

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Hit young adult novels may spread like wildfire, but they don’t grow on trees. The Times profiles Julie Strauss-Gabel, a YA editor known for whipping her writers into shape: The last thing you want is an author saying, ‘That’s what’s selling right now, so that’s what I’m going to write.’ That’s the point at which […]

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Autism on the Page

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Even if we already know our identity, proper representation helps us accept that identity. It’s well-established that negative/no representation has awful effects on self-esteem. When we see no one like us—or when we’re only ever the troubled sibling, never the heroic kid —it sends a message. We’re not normal. We’re not welcome. We’re not heroes. […]

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The Freedom of Fiction

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At Booth, Susan Lerner interviews Jonathan Franzen about a range of subjects including the influence of the YA novel, social media, and the different “forms of exploration” associated with essays and fiction. On the latter subject Franzen says: I think fiction is the genre better suited to exploration. Essay is reporting, in a sense. There are […]

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The Rumpus Saturday Essay: Stain

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It’s hard to remember why I was silent. Maybe, like some of the women only now reporting they were raped by Bill Cosby decades ago, I was afraid I wouldn’t be believed.

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Stories That Care

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Reflecting on 20 successful years of Chicken Soup for the [Insert Identity Here] Soul, Katy Waldman explains why the same clichés get us every time: Despite the growth of the self-help market, has the recession, or irony, destroyed Chicken Soup’s chances of regaining the mainstream? In fact, did we even like them to begin with? […]

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Skewed Standards

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The YA battle rages on at Flavorwire, where Sarah Seltzer responds to Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker essay pondering the effects of supposedly lowbrow children’s lit: We have to interrogate our basic assumption that writing skills possessed by educated white people are the best skills around…Humor, action, relatable language, and plotting are not lesser tools in […]

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