The Daily Mail wrote an infuriating piece on the "rise of sick-lit" in YA which is sort of like that article in the Wall Street Journal two years ago, only it's the Daily Mail so we don't have to take it as seriously. There have been some great responses to the piece, though, most notably in The Guardian, although John Green's only tweet on the subject wins the Best Reaction award by a mile:
The direct link to the Daily Mail song is here, but I warn you, if you click on it it'll be in your head for the rest of the day.
Speaking of John Green, the Fault in Our Stars book tour is coming to Dublin! Tickets are available here for the RDS concert hall on the 6th of February.
Filmmaker D. Christopher Salmon is producing a short film based on one of my favourite Neil Gaiman short stories The Price. A mock-up of the animation can be watched here. I can't wait to see the finished film, but at the same time I'm sort of in love with the storyboard as it is.
Kirsten Dunst totally wins the Celebrities Who Once Posed for Books Covers competition. (What do you mean it's not a competition?)
The Guardian introduces the Lousy Book Covers Tumblr, & it's kind of hilarious.
The School Library Journal blog A Chair, a Fireplace and a Tea Cozy asks an interesting question: how many YA books can you think of that feature menstruation? How many female heroes trek through dystopian wildernesses for months without seeming to have to worry about buying tampons? If Edward can smell Bella's blood in Twilight then... I should probably just cut this sentence short, shouldn't I? I think it's for the best.
In Tamora Pierce's first Alanna book, the heroine has to deal with getting her first period while disguised as her male twin in order to train for knighthood. Years since I read the book, but I remember it being pretty enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteThe Ayla books also discuss periods extensively (and various other bodily functions), and they fit the description of "female hero trekking through a dystopian (Stone Age) wilderness", even if they aren't strictly YA. I bet a lot of their readers are young adults, though - I was about 13 when I read them first. (Disclaimer: I'm not making any statements about quality here!)
I have a nagging recollection of a heroine who gets her period unexpectedly (after having them absent-due-to-hardship-of-some-kind) and is annoyed at being distracted from whatever her current task is in order to make arrangments. Which may have involved cutting up a garment. Will rack my brains further and try identify her. Otherwise I can't think of many further examples... I have a vague impression that 80s and early 90s YA fiction involved more discussion of menstruation - maybe the lingering influence of Judy Blume?
I have to admit to never having read any Tamora Pierce. I'll have to rectify that. And yeah, I can think of a good few first-period stories in 80s books but YA heroines seem to be older these days. Also not so much discussion of periods in recent dystopias, except Kevin McDermott's Valentina actually, so brownie points for Irish male writers!
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