Book length issue

Fasinating discussion at Carolrhoda Books Blog triggered by Tough Love: An Open Letter to Kids' Book Publishers in School Library Journal on book length and other issues.

James Frey's YA series

The New York Times reports that James Frey, notorious for playing fast and loose with facts in his Oprah-endorsed memoir about drug addiction, is shopping a YA series around. Well, fine. More power to him. On the surface, the idea sounds a little tired, but if it's handled well enough, it could potentially be readable. And lies are not a problem in fiction, so Mr. Frey should be safe in that regard.

Here's what's odd in the article, though: a) it sounds like he's sold the movie rights to a studio who has already selected a director (Michael Bay) for the films before he's even placed the first volume of the books with a publisher; b) his last book brought him a million dollar advance but sold only 81,000 copies, so somebody ate it big time there; c) his agent originally submitted the YA book anonymously, making one wonder how much confidence anyone, even his own agent, might have left for this fellow; d) the co-author of the YA books has still withheld his/her name, making one wonder what writer might have such a bad reputation that he/she is hiding behind James Frey; e) this is the kind of gossip that belongs in snarky blogs, not the NYT book pages.

Why must we lie to our children?

I'll start by confessing that this is a completely neurotic post. No one in their right mind would nitpick what I am about to nitpick. So here goes:

At the library last night I was reading picture books, one after another, to my sixteen month old daughter. She was having a delightful time and thanks to David Shannon's fantastic Duck on a Bike, she learned to say "duck"--well, "duh" actually, but she was pointing at the duck so it counts.

Mostly we read books about the day ending, the night starting, going to bed, etc. In nearly every one, when the sun went down the moon came up, when the sun set the moon rose. My problem is that this is not what happens in reality. The moon does not operate on a 24 hour cycle like the sun. The moon is often out in the daytime; it's often not out at all because it's on the other side of the earth, even at night. And of course, sometimes it's not out because it's a new moon.

I asked my six year-old son about this. "When the sun sets does the moon rise?"

"Yes," he answered instantly.

"Really?" I asked. "Can't you see the moon during the day sometimes?"

"Yes," he said. His preschool used to sing a song that went Mr. Moon, Mr. Moon, you're out to soon. The sun is still in the sky.

"So," I prompted. "The moon doesn't always rise when the sun sets, does it?"

"I guess not. Dad, can I just read my book?"

I just wonder why we insist on telling our children this lie? I realize that children like order, or anyway, they understand order. That's why when they learn to speak, they are able to apply the rules of English, but not the exceptions. They say "I eated my lunch." It takes time to learn the exceptions, and to apply the rules less absolutely.

Still, if children learn simple rules innately, why do we emphasize them to the point of lying about the world, instead of helping them understand the more complex stuff?

All three of my children learned the alphabet in part with the help of a Leap Frog refrigerator magnet toy. When the kids would stick a magnetic letter into the toy, it would sing a song about that letter and the sound it made. Every letter makes a sound. E says 'ee' or 'eh.', it would sing. Well, now, that's now exactly true, is it? Not all the time, anyway. In my head, I revise the song to say Every time it makes a sound, E says 'ee' or 'eh.' Subtle change, but with it, it's telling the truth.

I wonder if these little untruths do damage of even a subtle sort. Could asking children to ignore their observations in favor of an easier to understand model of reality affect their thinking long term on some level?

BTW, if you want to see where the actual moon is in realtion to the sun, you can check out Moongiant, a very cool online tool.

Graveyard book readings available online

It's ridiculously early to announce this, but mousecircus.com will be [is] hosting video readings of the Newbery Medal winning The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The readings begin October 1 and the entire book will be available in this form by October 9th. I'll try to post a reminder when that date gets a little nearer.

#UPDATE 4:04 PM: It's already there! The October the site refers to took place in 2008. In my defense, no year is mentioned and, if you don't scroll down you don't see the active links.

Evil, Amatuerish Personification

Because I have my own aspirations as a writer of children's literature, and because its praises have been so widely sung, I've been looking at The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books. It is a gentle introduction, very basic, and completely realistic, constantly reminding the aspiring writer how hard they'll have to work to get anywhere and that even then they might not get anywhere. Fair enough.

I was troubled though, by a section that breaks down the types of fantasy in children's literature. On the subject of "personification" (giving human traits to inanimate objects) in children's stories, Mr. Underdown explains that while celebrities can get away with personifying objects in their stories, no one else should even try:

You are not a celebrity so personification is an area you want to avoid. Publishers that actually take manuscripts from the outside world don't want this kind of story, and they wouldn't even spend much time looking at it because they would assume it's from a real beginner.

Now, I've been a slush pile editor for a sci-fi and fantasy magazine, so I understand the temptation to set up rules for writers. But there are rules and then there are rules. I can say things like "Don't send me a story in which the last line reads anything like 'and then my father tore his face off as if it were made of rubber and stared at me with huge, black alien eyes.'" I can say "Don't send me an abduction story in which the protagonist is paralyzed throughout and incapable of taking any action at all." I can say "Don't send me fantasy in which the phrases clauses 'his muscles rippled' and 'their swords were a blur' appear in the same sentence or even in the same paragraph." Exceptions to these rules would be rare indeed.

But I would never say, we don't want alien impersonation stories, or we don't want abduction stories, or we don't want fantasy stories that involve sword fighting. Granted, it's unlikely that stories of this type will be interesting. But I can think of interesting stories that match each of these descriptions, and it's certainly possible I might find another, even from a beginner submitting to the slush pile.

Do publishers really not "want" stories that incorporate personification? Why then did they publish The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane? Why do they continue to publish editions of Aesop's fables, editions of the Velveteen Rabbit, of The Little Engine that Could? The Brave Tin Soldier? Why are Toy Story, Cars, and the classic Pixar short of two lamps playing ball so popular? Will they really reject all personification stories because a lot of them are bad? Doesn't this seem fantastically short-sighted? Doesn't blind adherence to rules reflect a wish to be immortalized along with those editors who rejected Theodor Geisel and J.K. Rowling?

Publishers? Editors? Writers? What think you?

Simon and Schuster and Scribd

An article from last week in the New York Times, announces that Simon and Shuster will begin selling electronic versions of 5,000 of its titles on Scribd.

The good news: It will make most those titles partially browsable online--a nice feature that book buyers already enjoy with many titles available on Amazon.

The weird news: electronic copies will be 20% off the cover price of the print edition. 20% off is the discount Borders offers on new hard covers. 20% off is pretty close to the markdown at Walmart. A lot of Amazon's stock will go for about 20% off cover. Anyone with five minutes and a web browser can find a copy of any print book offered somewhere for at least 20% off the cover price. So the savings that Simon and Shuster experiences for not having to print a book, not having to ship it, not having to find room on a stock shelf in a book store and not having to pay a bookstore worker to ring it up at the cash register is, effectively, nothing. If anyone actually buys any of these titles, Simon and Shuster will simply pocket the extra profits. Oh, and you have to have a computer to download the thing, and a $300 ereader if you want to take it on the bus.

$9.99, the typical price of a Kindle ebook, is still too much, but at least in the long run it's a bargain over paying for print. Keep up the insane price model, guys, and you will make Kindle the ITunes of the book world.

Yeah, we've been through this already. Remember? With music. Learn a lesson.

Poetry Friday Roundup

Welcome to Poetry Friday at Critique de Mr. Chompchomp. Thanks for coming. Add your links in the comments below.

On Monday June 8th, the poet Ruth Stone, a true national treasure, celebrated her 94th birthday. She is still producing fantastic work. To wish her a happy (only slightly belated) birthday, I'm kicking things off with a link to her recent poem, "The Cabbage".