Another Look at YA

I heart essays and books of essays. Lately I've been into these two books, full of essays by adults about the books they read as kids and teenagers.

• Everything I Need to Know About Being a Girl I Learned from Judy Blume edited by Jennifer O'Connell--This fun anthology is filled with essays by grown women writers about the Judy Blume books that shaped them growing up. Contributors include Meg Cabot and Stephanie Lessing. Most of the essays are that mix of comic and tragic that pretty much adolescent experience seems to embody. Even though I've read relatively few Judy Blume novels, this book still had me rapt, and I felt like I had read Judy Blume's full body of work by the end. This anthology is an excellent illustration of the power of books to reach out across divides and give lonely, confused, or curious readers something to run with.

• Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stop Reading by Lizzie Skurnick--This got its start as a column on Jezebel.com. The book is filled with book reports on a range young adult novels--some I'd heard of (Judy Blume, of course, is included) and some I hadn't. I haven't read much of it, but I have skimmed the whole thing, and it looks great. I love thinking about why the books we love matter so much.

Both of these books steer far away from a dry, academic tone. I know that literary analysis, even that with a light, conversational tone, isn't for everyone. To me, though, nothing makes YA novels better than a little analysis. And this is just the way to do it--to make it fun.

A Love Letter to The Enchanted April

Dear Enchanted April,

I think the stars aligned for us to meet. First, I saw a flier for your play version, and the description sounded so lovely that your title remained on the surface of my mind. I never saw the play, but when I was in a bookstore that month, walking by the clearance wall, what book should be prominently displayed, half-off, but you? It didn't matter to me that you were filled with typos because the sale edition was published by one of those online companies that scans in out-of-copyright books and spits them out without proofreading. It only mattered that I found you.

You embody everything that is good about literature. You are filled with gut-busting comedy. Your main character, Lotty, is my existential hero. You make such prudent observations about people. Your character's lives are all transformed for the better.

I am so thankful that Elizabeth von Arnim wrote you, and that Mike Newell directed a film version of you in the '90s that finally came out on DVD this year. But truth be told, it's the book version of you that I like the best. The actors are great in the movie, but they just don't sound as wonderful as they do in my imagination, when I read your words.

Thank you so much for taking me to the coast of Italy for a month in the 1920s, just by reading your pages. You make me believe in change.

Love,
SewBissy

So Very Cheesy

It's time for some cheese. So far I've only acknowledged the stuff out there that avoids, for the most part, being corny. (The Singles Ward not included.) So I'd like to take a break now and acknowledge those works out there that are perhaps not high quality, but oh-so-good anyway.

• Center Stage--This movie about young dancers in a prestigious New York ballet company can be a little nauseating at times (namely the salsa dancing scene--"Your sweat is sweet!"), but the dancing is good. It's worth it for that alone. (Especially the jazz class scene and the year-end performance.) This movie came out when I was taking dance, and our teacher, after hearing many students rave about the movie, finally had to say, "Girls, I understand that the dancing is great, but that love story was awful." I guess that's just what happens when you get amazing dancers to try and act, too. Oh, and it has a soundtrack with Mandy Moore. I somehow have a weakness for Mandy Moore music. She just makes life sound fun. (While looking up the link on IMDb, I realized that a sequel, Center Stage: Turn It Up came out in 2008.)
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Father of the Bride (and Father of the Bride: Part II)--This is almost too good to be included on this list. I mean come on, it's Steve Martin and Diane Keaton. Still, since I have a hazy sense of embarrassment around expressing just how much I like this, I think it's eligible. This is one of those times when the sequel is as good as, if not better than, the original (although the original original, of course, is the one with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor).
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Sleepless in Seattle--There's just something so comforting about Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in innocuous romantic comedies, and when they're in them together--even better. I'm looking at you, too, You've Got Mail.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• High School Musical 3: Senior Year--Why are you so good, High School Musical 3? Is it your song? Your dance? Your smiley Zac Efron? (I am forever endeared to the kid after my first exposure to him, playing an autistic boy in the TV movie Miracle Run.) I don't even enjoy the first two movies that much. This last one is just so...infectious in the best way. It makes me wish I'd gone to a singing, dancing high school.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Meg Cabot in general--This is the author of The Princess Diaries and many, many more novels for both young adults and adults. I've only read the Queen of Babble series, but I've seen the Princess movies (with Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews), and all these combine to make me a big Meg Cabot fan in general. The fact that I've included her on the list gives me pause, though--doesn't she deserve some real recognition? Chick lit gets a bad reputation, but unjustly so. Just because a book is written for a female audience, that automatically makes is seem shallow? Of course not! Here's a blog post by YA author Maureen Johnson that elaborates on this point.

This is actually just the beginning--I'm just too embarrassed to list more. I'll work up the nerve someday, though.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

I just finished this book by E. Lockhart. So good! I'd heard very good things about The Disreputable History before I read it (like this NPR recommendation by the author of Book Lust, Nancy Pearl), so I had very high expectations. When I got to the last third of the book, I started to really get what all the good reviews were talking about.

How do I even describe it? Let's start with the facts. Main character (you guessed it): Frankie Landau-Banks, a girl at an elite boarding school in northern Massachusetts. When she becomes aware of the presence of an active secret society on campus, she's first intrigued and then indignant. It's an all-male affair, one that has no room for her. That is, until she hatches a brilliant scheme.

And the brilliant scheme? That really hits its stride in the second half/last third of the book.

What I really loved about this book was its girl-power message. E. Lockhart did a wonderful job of describing what it's like to grow up girl. Wanting respect and caring/loving relationships at the same time. Feeling like you have so much to say but no one to hear you. Wanting to be seen and be a part of a world that excludes you.

This was no helpless heroine, and it also wasn't a caricature of a feminist, either. It seemed like a portrait of a real girl, one with a healthy sense of self, one caught between who the world was telling her to be and who she wanted to be.

And you know, reading this was an eye-opener. It made me realize how rare it is for a fiction book to openly discuss a girl/woman's place in society. The only examples I can think of off the top of my head are Paper Towns and Looking for Alaska by John Green. In those, it never really gets thoroughly worked out, though, because narrators are boys. Don't get me wrong--these are great books, because the narrators are acknowledging that there are three-dimensional females in their lives, but you don't get inside the heads of the females actually having these thoughts.

So here's what I'm really trying to say: As someone who's been that girl struggling to feel like she's more than society says she is, I like this book. As someone who's been that girl unable to understand why, when she does speak up, she's either viewed as a cute, harmless, nearly invisible ladybug or as a trampling, destructive, hostile elephant, never just a person something important to say, I like this book. As someone who wants girls these days to know that they're not crazy for wanting to feel empowered, I like this book.

So The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks? Highly recommended.

P.S. New Moon Girls magazine is, in my opinion, the best place for young women to find support in growing up girl. It's aimed at a slightly younger audience than this book, though.

Sewing

This post will pretty much be interesting only to people who like to sew or would like to get into it. But this post qualifies as uplifting--well, because sewing makes me happy (which you may have guessed if you noticed my username).

Yes, it really, really does. A lot of people who don't sew consider it old-fashioned or the like. But you know what? If I were to look at the choices I've made in my life and pinpoint the one that made me feel most empowered, choosing to learn more about sewing would be really high up there.

Think about it. How much of your life do you spend merely choosing from a variety of pre-fabricated objects available to you? Houses, foods, furniture, cars, even office supplies, and clothes. In all these instances--except clothes and food--I am limited to the ones that already exist. I don't know how to build houses, furniture, or cars, and the paper I've made in my life would hardly suit my everyday needs. So when I pick vegetables from my garden, and when I make my own clothes, I relish the opportunity to choose exactly what suits me.

So much of the fashion industry is based on image and "standard" body types. Which aren't even standard. If you've got a long waist, a belly that expands when you eat, or long arms, finding clothes gets a little trickier. And that's not even talking about taste. What if the prints, colors, and cuts just aren't your style?

Well, if you're me, you take out some fabric, take your measurements, and begin sewing away.

All that is meant as introduction to the below. Here are my favorite blogs and books about sewing.

Blogs

• Posy Gets Cozy--This is the lovely blog of Alicia Paulson. She's written one book, called Stitched in Time, about memory crafts, and I believe she has a new one coming out soon about embroidery. I just love her voice on the blog. Gentle and introspective.
  
  
• Angry Chicken--Amy Karol's blog is a very fun place to visit. She used to be a painter, then got into quilting when her first child was born, as a way to express herself without exposing her daughter to toxic fumes. On the site, she talks about clothes she's made for herself and her daughters, craft projects, and anything she's come across and liked. Amy's also the author of two books on sewing, Bend-the-Rules Sewing and Bend the Rules with Fabric.
  
  
• Dress a Day--This blog by the lexicographer (writer of dictionaries) Erin McKeen is always a delight to visit. She blogs about vintage dresses and vintage patterns, and she often puts a fun twist on her posts by imagining scenarios for the illustrated women on pattern envelopes. Very amusing.

Books

• Generation T by Megan Nicolay--This is the book that reintroduced me to sewing. I've always sewn. I can't remember not knowing how to sew. But it was always so commonplace in my family that I never thought to be passionate about it. Often, I'd feel bogged down by the rules and just never get started with projects because of them. This book changed that. It's all about cutting up t-shirts making completely different fashions from them. I was just in the bookstore this weekend as saw that she has a new book on t-shirt revamping out: Generation T: Beyond Fashion.
  
  
• 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special by Faith Blakeney, Justina Blakeney, Anka Livakovic, and Ellen Schultz--Ditto to the above. I bought this at the same time as Generation T when they came out a few years ago.
  
  
• Sew U: The Built by Wendy Guide to Making Your Own Wardrobe by Wendy Mullin--This book was the perfect next step for me, after I'd had my fun refashioning t-shirts, I wanted a litte more challenge, but I wasn't ready to go back to making ill-fitting clothes from commercial patterns. The book includes three patterns (for a shirt, pants, and A-line skirt) that fit beautifully. The book really excels in showing you how to customize patterns for yourself. Sew U is also the book that taught me how to (painlessly) make a zip fly. There's a sequel of sorts, which is also excellent: Sew U Home Stretch: The Built by Wendy Guide to Sewing Knit Fabrics
  
  
• Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics by Francesca DenHartog--I love how this book shows you how to make your own skirt patterns from your measurements. It walks you through A-line, straight, circle, and peasant skirts (and maybe more; I can't remember). Very, very helpful.

That's not even the beginning. There are still more sewing books that I hold dear, and I haven't even mentioned the sewing websites (not blogs, websites) that have helped me along on my sewing self-teaching. They'll just have to wait for another day.

Happy sewing.

Oh, Canada

I'm not Canadian, but sometimes I wish I were. Several visits there have confirmed that it is a truly great country. It's been a long time since I've gotten to stay there for any extended period, so I get my Canadian fix these days with books and DVDs. Here are some of my favorites.

• Anne of Green Gables--The book series by L.M. Montgomery and the movie versions with Megan Follows. My deep, abiding love for L.M. Montgomery as a girl inspired not one but two trips to Prince Edward Island, where the author is from and where the books take place. The sands are red there and the landscape just as enchanting as the books describe.
  
  
  
  
  
• Road to Avonlea--A TV series from the '90s based loosely on L.M. Montgomery writing. This aired in the US on the Disney channel for awhile. Admittedly, the Disney involvement did alter the show, making it a bit, well, Disney-fied. Still, this is a great series for kids, if you edit out the couple violent-action-movie-type episodes. The show has beautiful natural scenery--it takes place on Prince Edward Island, too, though some of it was filmed in Ontario. As far as the cast, it includes the inimitable Jackie Burroughs, Mag Ruffman, and Sarah Polley as regulars. Also, there are a number of cameos, including ones by Christopher Reeve and Stockard Channing.
  
  
  
  
  
• Slings and Arrows--This is another TV series, but it began in 2003, and it's definitely not children's entertainmnet. It lasted three seasons, and apparently it aired on some American station like Bravo, but I didn't find out about it until all three seasons were on DVD and my father received them as a gift. This is a great series! It's all about a Shakespearean theater company in the fictional town New Burbage, and it's very smart. Each season follows them as they put on a different Shakespearean play--Hamlet, Macbeth, and then King Lear. The drama of a drama company is at once hilarious and fascinating. Oh yeah, did I mention that the main character, played by Paul Gross, is haunted by the late company director? So yes, where there's a ghost there's usually a dark element. But my criterion for something to be uplifting is what it does with potential darkness--it has to turn it around somehow. And this series does that for me, mostly with humor. It has such a great, quirky cast, too, including Rachel McAdams in Season 1 and Sarah Polley in Season 2 (as well as her father Michael Polley throughout the whole series).
  
  
  
  
  
• Corner Gas--This is a half-hour sitcom that takes place in Saskatchewan, mostly at a corner gas station and the attached diner. It stars Brent Butt, who has apparently been described as the Drew Carey of Canada. I like this show much better than I did The Drew Carey Show, though. It's not crude, it's just funny. I've heard that this show is very popular in Canada. If the number of cameos, including the Canadian Prime Minister, are any indication, this must be true. I haven't seen all the seasons yet. I think it just finished its sixth and final season this year.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Robson Arms--Another half-hour TV show, though not as kid-friendly as Corner Gas is. I admit, I'm not a fan of every episode of this one. Some are just downers, other are a bit crude. But other episodes are great. The reason for the discrepancy between episodes is the format, which is actually clever. The show takes place in an apartment building in Vancouver, and each episode profiles a different resident of the building. So the subject matter is vastly different each time. Sometimes it's the family that runs the small convenience store on the first floor, sometimes it's the gay couple, sometimes it's the young techie guy, sometimes it's the roommates who deal pot. The list goes on. The only constant in each episode is the Super Intendent, Yuri. As for cast, this features two of the same actors from Corner Gas, Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick, as well as Mark McKinney (from Slings and Arrows) and Megan Follows (from Anne of Green Gables) in Season 1. There's also a cameo by Leslie Nielsen in Season 2. Apparently Dave Foley from NewsRadio appears as the new building owner in Season 3.

So, looking at this list, it becomes apparent how little I've mentioned Canadian books. That's because I haven't read many by Canadian authors--or at least I haven't known they were Canadian. Anne of Green Gables is the only one up there. So, I sense a new mission. To sniff out Canadian literature.

Poems

Here are some good poems.

• "Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye
  
  
• "Eagle Poem" by Joy Harjo
  
  
• "Little Summer Poem Touching the Subject of Faith," "The Journey," and "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver