Cinderella (the ashen faced girl) and Cinder (the "lunar" cyborg)

I chose Cinderella by the Grimm brothers as my fairy tale, their story of Cinderella goes as follows: One particular Rich man’s first wife dies, after giving birth to good pious girl, and the man remarries a control freak and the wife brings two externally beautiful but internally vile, wretched and ugly daughters into the house.  The good and pious daughter forced to be maid and servant nick named Cinderella because she sleeps near the fireplace and ashes or cinders get on her.  As it just so happens there is a three day royal festival coming to town.

The tree growing from Cinderella’s mothers grave (where she cries and prays every chance she gets) and its birds give Cinderella a spectacular and gorgeous dress and slippers were so dazzling was her dress that her no one recognized her, the prince dances with Cinderella. On day two of the festival the tree and birds give Cinderella an even more beautiful dress, everyone was too astonished for words. Except the princess who calls Cinderella his “partner.”

One of Cinderella’s glass slippers is caught on stairway upon Cinderella’s quick escape. The Prince goes on quest to find the lady who will fit the “dainty” shoes. The evil step sisters cant mangle their feet without getting noticed and so Cinderella gets to marry the prince and the step sisters are rendered blind by birds for the rest of their miserable lives.

As a totally different take on the Cinderella story I chose Cinder (Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer published in 2012.  In this dystopian sci-fi retelling of Cinderella, Cinder is a girl mechanic and servant who is also a “lunar” cyborg living in a dystopian New Beijing, on a planet earth that has been ravaged by a plague. Cinder is a servant who is, in disguise the single last hope for a planet doomed by the plague, but she has loyalties to the “lunars” who are because of a evil dictator woman hell bent on taking over the planet. Because of Cinder’s attraction to earth’s Prince Kai, Cinder finds her self in the midst of a intergalactic struggle that seems poised on the edge of war.

Caught between loyalty to her identity and her hearts desire, between honesty to who she is, and loyalty to her hearts desire. What is Cinder going to do? Common elements include the royal ball, a love interest that is also an important prince, a royal festival, a dropped slipper, horrible self image, abuse, bullying, and protagonist who is forced to be a servant for a long time (a number of years).

Cinder is a story book that is a great example of the mixing of science fiction and classic fairy tales. Cinder is a very likable character despite her mysterious and strange identity, and her sometimes quirky and clumsy behavior.  Marissa Meyers’s book speaks of betrayal of identity as a means to be honest to ones heart, an important lesson.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. "Cinderella." 1999. National Geographic.com. 3 July 2003 <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/cinderella.html>
 Meyer, M. (2012). Cinder. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

Blind Eyes on the Prizes

Blind Eyes on the Prizes

I think that the focus on prizes skews the discussion from what is to what gets rewarded.  The books are written the same with or without any award, awards are simply, in my honest opinion most useful as marketing devices. The sales of books that win any youth literature awards are all but guaranteed to skyrocket sometimes exponentially after they are recognized or “win” the award(s).

 Some books are chosen by the Newberry committee that is so carefully described by Bonnie J.F. Miller in her Fall 1998 article “What Color is Gold?. The books that win the famous Newberry award or win Newberry Honors, certainly give evidence to how the award is used and tremendously successful at selling those books. 

The critique by Marc Aronson in his article “Slippery Slopes and Proliferating Prizes” is fascinating in its approach to defining some awards as “limited by” the award committee’s identity.  MY response is that I agree with Miller’s point that “literature is subjective” and that awards are, as she quotes Joan Lyon Atkinson, “chosen by imperfect human beings who are of a particular time and place; they reflect the values and priorities of their eras and backgrounds.” (Miller, 1998)

  

I think we should add more awards for every category whether it be quality in a genre or more awards for more specific identities to increase the knowledge and understanding of all identities racial or otherwise.

There is simply no way to take the human aspect and the identity aspect out of a single person much less a whole committee of people, so why be upset at the human condition, and humanity in general, when we can work with each other. Identity is always a factor as long as we hold on to, and are attached to those identities, we will have to distinguish literature based on those identities, especially ethnicities or other identities who are treated as maligned and marginalized minorities whose youth literature could otherwise be ignored entirely or worse. If we do not distinguish literature, it can be and I think will be lost to our library users.

pairing YA lit with classics

Bruce Robbins article about using YA lit in high school English classes, is full of insight. I particularly enjoyed his idea that with out help some readers can be lost in the gap between middle school and high school because some kids can't effectively jump that gap alone, and this can make the young adults distrusting of books. This distancing from books can make some young adults become forced to read classic literature, which are usually books reluctant readers don't enjoy and because of this some readers can disengage and struggle to understand books through out the rest of their lives. I also like the methods and strategies Robbins article suggests for using new YA books and integrating them with the classics. 

As for how to incorporate more contemporary YA materials I would consult the award winners, as well as doing my own research to find what classic could fit with what new YA book or material (suggest non print materials for my students to use to better understand themes, plot, dilemmas, etc.).   

As for my own pairing of a classic with a relatively new YA book Ophelia by Lisa M. Klein copyright 2006, and Hamlet by Shakespeare would be my first choice of pairing for High School English Classes, that is not discussed by Robbins. I like Ophelia by Klein because it presents an alternate take where Hamlet takes a back seat to his lover Ophelia, and the book tells of the alternate point of view and different plot in a way that has Ophelia surviving, and searching for her life's meaning. It is a page turning thriller where all is revealed in the end.  

The Treasure Chest Series

The Treasure Chest series by Ann Hood is an ongoing series (book 7 comes out this fall and book 8 comes out next spring) that stated with Angel of the Battlefield that was published in January 2013. The series (meant for ages 8-12) tells of the adventures in current time the journeys in time travel of brother and sister 12 year old twins  (Felix and Maisie) of divorced parents. The series is a collection of stand-alone books about traveling back in time to different historical figures. In book one, Felix and Maisie have been forced to move to a new house because of their parent’s divorce, the mother decides to move with them into their great aunt Maisie’s old apartment in a mansion that is owned by a historical society/restoration museum.  The twins explore the mansion, first as part of a tour then they explore the off limit parts of the mansion called Elm Medona on their own.

                                                                                        

 On the first of their escapades in the forbidden areas of the huge house, then find a room containing a treasure chest full of fascinating and historical things, notes, coins, and other mysterious objects. The twins end up going make visits to a different historical figure in each book, and time and time again they try to not alter history (this is tricky as often the twins need to learn the history they are visiting) in the process.

The character development and the dynamics between each of the twins and their elderly great aunt Maisie (who now lives in a special assist senior living home) is carefully thought out and described in depth. I especially enjoyed the humor that is sometimes resounding and the levity that is sometimes carefully hidden in this series. It warms my heart that there is such an awesome series that reminds me a lot of the Time Warp Trio that I read when I was a 2^nd grader. 

lets have a serious talk about youth series

I am irked by Anne Scott MacLeod and her rant/tantrum about the limitations and her issues with juvenile series fiction. I understand her perspective about the different books she brings up, but I have a problem with going from old fashioned/classic series and drawing generalized conclusions about all series based on a handful of series from at least 40 years ago.  Lets carefully deconstruct some of her claims in the second to last paragraph in her diatribe. The generalization about series being predictable might have some merit to it, but as for the series book “always ending satisfactorily for the protagonist, who is the reader’s surrogate“ I see a logical fallacies. 1. Things end satisfactorily for the protagonist, this is not always the case, there are several series where there is devastating circumstances in which the protagonist barely survives and loses a lover, a dear friend, a family member.

Moving on, series books “reaffirm, rather than challenge”. I have been challenged by a number of series, from Goosebumps to Delirium, to the Books of Elsewhere.

As for “their grievous lacks as literature” this is simply empty angry banter. I know many series books that could become classics someday, they are that good as literature. Anne Scott MacLeod wrote an article about series fiction where she made dismissive comments about a huge diversity of books based on a few older examples, this, especially her second to last paragraph, is to me simply a quite insubstantial rant. 

I like the last paragraph in Mark I. West’s 1985 article, where it says that the objections that librarians had against “unrealistic child heroes found in series books were based on the notion that childhood innocence should be both protected and prolonged.”   Kids should as soon as they are able, learn some emotional resilience, and test their boundaries and learn how they can enhance their own personal growth and well being thorough books that challenge them.

Do series books encourage a lifelong love of reading? 

Series defiantly encourage a lifelong love of reading, as one good book deserves another is the idea of reading and the same idea of a series.

Do they promote shallow intellectual habits? 

Not all series promote shallow intellectual habits, and honestly I have yet to find one series that even tries to shallow thinking and analysis.

Should schools and libraries include this lightweight material in their collections? 

I don’t really know what lightweight materials means, but if your talking about fluffy, less serious, more happiness and peace, and goodwill then yes, lightweight materials are essential.

How would you encourage a reader to move beyond the familiar and explore literature that does not necessarily have a sequel? 

I would encourage a reader to move beyond the familiar and explore literature that does not have a sequel by telling him or her that all the same elements in a series book can be found in many non-series books. 

Macleod, A. S. (1984). Secret in the trash bin: On the perennial popularity of juvenile series books (PDF). Children’s Literature in Education 15(3):127-140.

West, M. (1985). Not to be circulated: The response of librarians to dime novels (PDF).  Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 10(3):137-139.