Help from the Hive Mind

[dreams_of_wings]

so! In the fall I am going to be teaching two sections of introduction to women's studies at Suffolk University, which I am beyond thrilled about. But perhaps even more exciting is the fact that the department has asked me to develop and propose an upper division course for the spring semester, and the idea of mine they were most excited about is a

Comments

[asciikitty]

Maureen Johnson is writing some spectacular YA these days - I particularly recommend The Bermudez Triangle. Lauren Myracle likewise, her weird IM-speak series is a fascinating example of stunt writing.

Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy is amazing and powerful and hard to read - I would go back to school in order to be able to teach those books.

Dairy Queen & sequels by Catherine Gilbert Murdock are lovely interesting books about a midwestern jock who has to deal with being a jock and a girl.

I have not yet read but have heard good things about Justine Larbalestier's book Liar and I read and enjoyed her Magic or Madness trilogy. Both have non-white protagonists.

Frannie Billingsley's Chime is made of win and awesome and... I just... I think everyone should read it.

I could probably go on.

[orbitalmechanic]

Dairy Queen was fantastic and a great change-up from the more usual urban YA stuff. The jock stuff is good, but I think the rural "sports are the only way I can go to college" part is more important.

[asciikitty]

Yes, in fact. The rural poverty questions and the [spoilers] and the [other spoilers] were really well handled.

[ayelle]

I really liked the whole DQ series -- maybe the second one best, painful as it was. And I already told dreams_of_wings how I felt about it but OMG Chime. Best book I've read so far this year.

[dichroic]

I recommend the Dairy Queen books a lot as well - that and Justine Larbalestier's How to Ditch Your Fairy do something I don't see often: they have girls who are jocks, comfortable in their bodies - not necessaily in how they look but in what they can do, who enjoy pushing themselves just for the sheer breathless challenge of going farther and faster. I think that's an important thing. It's also in the Penderwicks books, but those aim a bit younger.

Both also have LGBT characters - a significant minor one (and then her girlfriend) in DQ, a walk-on appearance in HtoDYF.

The other neat thing DQ does is to have a main character who is not really a verbal type - it's a bit contradictory since the book is in 1st person, but it's neat enough to have a book center on someone who is not a wordy person that I forgive that contradiction.